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V 

Eeti*  jfreOerick  La  Eue  Ifting 


INTRODUCTION 
In  which  is  given  a 
Biographical  Sketch  of  the  author,  by  his  brother,  and  a 
number  of  interesting  Monographs,  written  by  him- 
self,  and    all   fully  substantiating  the   claim 
that  he  was  singularly  well  equipped 
to  write  a  commentary  on  the 
Psalter. 


Printed  (not  published)  by 
M.,  W.  &   C.  PENNYPACKER, 

ASBURY  PARK,  N.  J. 


Jforetoorb* 


We  would  be  thankful  and  happy  if  our  readers  could 
assure  us  that  we  were  successful  in  the  effort  to  blend  into 
the  unity  of  a  mosaic  painting,  the  Biographical  Sketch  of 
Rev.  Frederick  La  Rue  King,  the  many  interesting  mono- 
graphs by  Mr.  King,  and  the  commentary  on  Selected 
Psalms,  with  a  true  logical  connection  between  all  these 
parts  constituting  one  book.  This  was  a  difficult  thing  to 
accomplish,  but  God's  grace  was  equal  to  the  task  we  trust. 
Those  interested  in  my  brother's  work,  may  regret  that  he 
did  not  give  to  the  Christian  public  a  complete  analysis  of 
the  Psalter.  Such  are  not  aware  that  for  forty  or  more 
years  he  labored  on  the  Psalms,  but,  that  owing  to  chronic 
illness,  his  labor  of  love  was  intermittent.  Therefore  it  was, 
that  in  several  places  we  were  forced  to  supplement  his 
work  with  additions  of  our  own,  and  for  this  we  offer  the 
apology  of  necessity. 

Our  friends  will  notice,  that  from  the  title  page,  this 
book  is  only  printed,  and  not  published,  by  the  Pennypacker 
Bros.,  of  Asbury  Park,  N.  J.  This  affords  us  an  oppor- 
tunity to  say  several  things. 

( 1  )  We  have  had  printed  only  the  small  edition  of 
six  hundred  copies.  Of  these  as  many  as  450  or  500  copies 
are  already  disposed  of,  leaving  only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
copies  for  sale  to  those  who  may  wish  to  purchase  them. 

If  the  demand  for  extra  copies  should  warrant  it,  an- 
other edition  will  be  printed. 

(2)  If  any  responsible  party  should  desire  permission 
to  publish  this  entire  book  or  any  portion  of  it,  even  if  no 
more  than  a  single  monograph,  he  is  invited  to  correspond 


^electeD  psalms  anD  ^onograp&s 

with  the  collator  and  editor  of  this  volume,  whose  address 
will  be  the  Rev.  Albert  B.  King,  care  M.,  W.  &  C. 
Pennypacker,  Asbury  Park,  N.  J.,  U.  S.  A. 

MONOGRAPHS. 

Which  prove  that  the  late  Rev.  Frederick  La  Rue  King  was-' 
endowed  with  exceptionally  great  ability  for  the  difficult 
work  of  expounding  the  Davidic  Psalms. 

The  work  is  difficult,  simply  because  it  is  difficult  to 
find  a  man  who  can  fully  sympathize  with  David's 
utterances. 

Because  of  this,  many  commentators  who  lived  in  the 
past,  and  have  said  many  true  and  good  words  about  the 
Psalms,  have,  as  a  rule,  failed  to  penetrate  to  the  core  of 
things.  One  of  the  last  generation  of  expositors,  speaks  for 
many  of  his  brethren  as  truly  as  for  himself,  when  at  the  end 
of  his  comment  on  the  Psalter,  he  exclaims,  in  substance,  as 
he  throws  aside  his  pen,  "There,  I  have  made  a  finish,  and 
what  have  I  done  more  than  my  predecessors,  in  adding 
to  the  shelves  of  libraries,  another  commentary  of  doubtful 
value?" 

Turning  from  these,  we  venture  to  attempt  to  exhibit 
to  our  readers  the  proof  that  the  Rev.  Frederick  La  Rue 
King  was  endowed  with  exceptionally  great  ability  for  the 
work  of  expounding  the  Davidic  Psalms. 

PROOF  FROM  HIS  MONOGRAPHS. 

I.  David  was,  from  early  childhood  to  the  close  of 
life,  pre-eminent  in  a  trustful,  enthusiastic  worship  of  God, 
and  delight  in  His  presence. 

This  was  eminently  true  of  Mr.  King,  as  shown  in  the 

(A)  Biographical  Sketch  of  Rev.  Frederick  LaRue 
King,  by  his  brother;  and  also  in  the 

(B)  Sermon  on  Election. 


Eetn  jFreDerick  JLa  Eue  &itijj 

II.      David  had  a  poetical  and  musical  nature.     So 
had  Mr.  King.     The  proof  of  this  is  seen  in 

(A)  The  Sistine  Madonna. 

(B)  Lying  Awake  All  Night. 

(C)  Sonnet. 

(D)  Dies  Irae. 

(E)  Paraphrase  of  Psalm  XIX. 


III.      Intuitional  elements  of  David's  intellectual  activ- 
ity are  equally  conspicuous  in  Mr.   King's  writings. 

(A)  Letter.     Imprecatory  Psalms.    How  to  justify 
them. 

(B)  Letter.      Trusting  where  we  cannot  see. 

(C)  Christian  Science. 

(D)  Sub-Conscious  Christianity. 

(E)  Infant  Baptism. 

(F)  What   mean   ye   by   this   service,    rendered   in 
coming  to  the  Lord's  Supper? 

Comments    on    Selected    Psalms     1 9,    22,     36,   5 1 , 
101,  116,  120,  119. 

ALBERT  B.   KING. 


piograpfjical  ^feetti) 

. .  of .  . 

iftrtn  jFreDerick  La  Iftue  &ing 

Frederick  La  Rue  King  was  born  in  Morristown,  New 
Jersey,  January  2nd,  1 823.  A  brief  outline  of  his  life  would 
inform  us  that  Mr.  King's  ancestors  for  many  generations, 
and  on  both  his  father's  and  mother's  side,  were  consecrated 
children  of  God,  and  as  to  nationality  were  English  Puritans, 
French  Huguenots,  and  Dutch  Calvinists, — that  this  mingled 
blood  of  the  martyrs,  whilst  transmitting  moral  qualities  and 
forces,  was  supplemented  and  controlled  by  the  renewing, 
converting  and  sanctifying  grace  of  God's  Spirit,  causing  his 
body,  in  the  tender  years  of  childhood  to  become  a  temple  of 
God,"  so  that  he  could  say,  "I  have  always  loved  God," — 
that  for  seventy-six  years,  beginning  with  the  child  of  seven, 
he  suffered  a  "thousand  deaths"  from  asthma,  complicated 
in  later  years  with  bronchitis,  heart  trouble  and  other  organic 
diseases,  which  justifies  us  in  speaking  of  his  life  as  being  lived 
in  a  furnace, — of  varying  heat,  it  is  true,  but  whose  fires  were 
never  quite  extinguished, — that,  notwithstanding  the  fact  of 
being  so  heavily  handicapped  in  the  race  of  life,  Mr.  King 
was  enabled  to  graduate  with  credit  from  Princeton  Univer- 
sity in  1 844,  and  while  pursuing  his  theological  studies, 
taught  Latin,  History  and  Rhetoric  in  that  University,  so 
that  to  this  day  surviving  students  of  the  classes  he  taught 
speak  of  him  in  terms  of  honor  and  grateful  love.  But  work 
as  a  teacher,  as  truly  as  work  as  a  student,  was  chiefly  pre- 
paratory to  that  of  Pastor  and  Preacher,  for  which  his  heart 
yearned. 

In  1855  he  began  his  Gospel  Ministry,  and  labored 
with  success  at  Hudson  City,  Wyoming  Valley  and  Stony 
Point,  a  ministry  which  was  continued  and  highly  prized  by 


2    Selected  Psalms  anD  ^onograpjjs 

his  adult  church  membership,  and  especially  by  the  children, 
until  asthma  blocked  the  wheels  of  his  activity.  Notwith- 
standing the  brevity  of  these  pastorates,  these  same  children, 
now  adults,  assure  me  of  the  great  profit  he  was  to  their 
souls,  and  that  even  now  his  influence  is  by  no  means  a  spent 
force. 

The  complication  of  pulmonary  diseases,  heart  trouble, 
and  other  "thorns  in  the  flesh"  drove  him  from  place  to  place 
for  relief,  but  the  relief  was  never  more  than  temporary. 
Eventually  all  these  physical  enemies  took  on  chronic  forms, 
which  were  so  persistent,  that  no  longer  could  he  enter  a 
pulpit. 

Then  came  a  new  departure  in  the  unceasing  search  for 
health  and  new  ways  of  serving  God.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  he  and  his  true-hearted  and  self-sacrificing  sister  went  to 
Europe;  and  there  they  lived  for  twenty ?years,  until  his  good 
angel  in  the  flesh  was  "Caught  up  to  Heaven"  to  receive  her 
reward,  and  her  saddened  brother  returned  to  the  United 
States.  But  before  his  return,  and  for  many  years  our  be- 
loved brother  joyfully  discovered  and  used  in  Europe  oppor- 
tunities for  Christian  service.  In  churches  located  in  the  vari- 
ous countries  of  Europe  by  American  and  British  Protestants 
he  acted  as  Elder  and  Trustee.  Also  his  influence  as  an 
Evangelical  Christian  made  itself  felt  among  the  guests  in 
those  hotels  which  sheltered  him.  But  of  all  agencies  he  em- 
ployed to  witness  to  the  preciousness  of  Christ  as  our  Jesus, 
letter  writing  was  the  most  efficient.  Lack  of  space  must  ex- 
clude all  but  a  few  inadequate  samples,  of  the  many  letters 
he  wrote. 
Dear 

I  am  glad  you  are  reading  "The  Secret  of  a  Happy 
Life,"  by  Mrs.  Smith.  You  ask  what  I  think  of  the  chapter 
on  the  Divine  Union.  I  must  own  that  it  leaves  much  to  be 
desired  in  the  way  of  exposition,  but  I  think  she  holds  the 
right  view.  She  says,  page  222,  "No  one  can  be  in  Christ 
who  is  not  Christ-like."  That  looks  as  if  she  thought  that  to  be 


Eeto*  jFreDerick  JLa  Iftue  &in&        3 

"in  Christ"  and  to  be  "Christ-like"  were  one  and  the  same. 
On  page  221  she  says  that  "even  the  weakest  and  most  failing 
believer  in  Christ"  may  have  the  Divine  Union, — or  in  other 
words,  the  vital  relation  may  have  been  established  by  regen- 
eration while  not,  as  yet,  vital  possession  has  been  secured  by 
sancification.  She  sums  up  the  matter  well  on  page  223. 
"Oneness  with  Christ  means  being  made  partakers  of  His 
nature,"  "as  well  as  of  his  life,  for  nature  and  life  are  of 
course  one."  That  means  that  nature  is  bound  to  result  in  a 
living  that  is  in  accordance  with  itself.  Wonderful  truth!  It 
cost  me  years  of  study  and  brooding  to  make  myself  master 
of  it,  and  now  that  I  am  master  of  it,  I  find  that  that  does 
not  make  me  one  with  Christ.  No,  I  must  feel  after  Him 
and  find  Him.  I  must  take  Him  as  he  is  offered.  I  must  act 
out  the  life  of  Christ  in  order  to  ge'„  the  life  of  Christ  in  me. 
Paradox,  but  yet  how  true. 

Dear 

This  morning  I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  words 
(Eph.  2:  3rd  and  4th)  "But  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for 
his  great  love  with  which  he  loved  us,  even  when  we  were 
dead  in  sins,  "hath  quickened  us,  etc."  The  fact  of 
God's  loving  us  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  im- 
pressed me  as  it  had  not  done  before.  We  are  bound 
to  be  saved,  we  can  not  help  ourselves,  the  King  wills  it, 
and  who  can  gainsay  Him?  Who  can  get  from 
under  the  blue  sky?  God's  love  is  like  that  mighty  dome 
which  we  cannot  get  away  from.  Trench  expresses  this  idea 
somewhere  very  beautifully.  What  a  thought!  Imprisoned 
in  God's  love,  adamantine  bolts  and  bars  around  us;  we 
cannot  break  one,  nor  can  any  one  break  in  to  pluck  us  out. 
Who  shall  measure  His  words,  when  He  speaks  of  such 
things? — Captives  of  love — a  hopeless  captivity — we  are 
never  to  be  ransomed.  We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  an 
eternity  of  joy. 

Not  by  toil  and  hard  climbing  do  we  attain  to  the 
eternal  home.     The  City  which  has  the  foundations  descends 


4    ©elected  p*alms  and  ^onogtapbs 

to  us  out  of  Heaven.  And  if  any  one  should  ask  me  when 
I  am  a  dweller  in  that  place, — 'Why  are  you  here?'  I  ca» 
say,  because  I  am  my  Father's  son.  I  have  inherited  it.  I 
am  fully  authorized  to  say  that  (John  1  :1 2.) 

The  Highest  looked  down,  and  behold,  we  were  "the 
captives  of  the  Mighty  and  the  prey  of  the  Terrible."  "If 
I  will,  who  can  resist?"  said  the  King,  and  at  the  word  our 
shackles  fell  away.  We  did  not  deliver  ourselves.  The 
blessed  One  said,  "I  came  down  from  heaven  to  do  the  will 
of  my  Father  in  heaven."  We  had  no  toil.  Do  the  trees 
toil  when  the  soft  spring  air  breathes  upon  them  and  their 
leaves  start  forth? 

"And  I  grew  restless  as  I  heard, 
Restless  and  buoyant  as  a  bird 
Down  vast  aerial  currents  sailing — 
Yielding  and  bowing  I  knew  not  whither, 
But  feeling  resistance  unavailing." 

It  was  easy  for  me,  but  for  Him,  the  Blessed  One,  it 
was  hard,  hard,  hard, — "By  Thine  agony  and  Bloody 
Sweat,  by  Thy  Cross  and  Passion." 

When  will  the  time  come  that  I  so  long  for,  when  we, 
who  perforce  stand  so  much  aloof  from  His  sorrow,  will  at 
last  understand  it.  Oh!  will  we  not  shout  "Unto  Him  who 
loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  blood!  We 
will  then  have  the  tongue  of  angels,  and  be  able  to  speak  of 
these  things. 

The  following  was  found  in  a  corner  of  my  brother's 
trunk  after  his  decease.  It  now  sees  the  light  for  the  first 
time.  It  is  a  specimen  of  his  graceful  multum-in-parvo  style. 
The  title  we  furnished  ourselves. 

CHRISTIAN  LIVING,  DYING; 

CHRISTIAN  DYING,  LIVING. 

Lord,  I  desire  to  die,  in  order  that  I  may  live;  I  desire 
to  live  in  order  that  I  may  die.  Thou  commandest  me  to  live, 
and  to  bring  forth  the  works  of  life,  and  I  cannot  unless  Thou 


ftefc*  jFce&etick  La  Eue  i&ing        5 

quickenest  me.  Thou  commandest  me  to  die,  and  I  cannot 
shake  off  this  body  of  sin  and  corruption.  Slay  the  old  man 
within  me  this  day.  Take  away  this  my  life,  which  is  death, 
and  bring  me  that  death  which  is  life.  I  cast  myself  upon 
Thee.  I  am  willing  to  be  what  Thou  wilt.  Work  this 
great  change  within  me,  and  within  those  who  are  near  and 
dear  to  me,  and  Thine  shaD  be  the  glory. 

In  tracing  the  biography  of  any  good  man  the  most  im- 
portant question  asked  is  this — "What  was  the  outcome  of 
all  the  training  and  grace  received,  as  respects  character  and 
deed?" 

We  once  called  our  brother's  attention  to  the  fact  of  his 
well-nigh  universal  popularity.  Whilst  he  could  not  deny  it, 
he  expressed  his  astonishment  that  any  one  could  find  in  him 
anything  to  admire  and  love.  And  as  he  said  this,  his  face 
expressed  child-like  wonder,  innocence,  and  absence  of  all 
self-conscious  egotism.  I  told  him,  with  a  smile,  that  proba- 
bly I  had  discovered  the  secret  of  his  popularity.  Shall  I 
not  make  you,  my  reader,  to  share  in  my  knowledge?  He 
was  popular  (as  I  told  him)  because  he  gave  with  sympa- 
thetic generosity  that  very  thing  most  needed  by  the  recipient. 
His  sympr  ihy  was  so  sincere,  so  deep,  so  painfully  intense  at 
times,  that  frequently  we  withheld  from  his  ears  the  recital  of 
our  own  little  losses,  sorrows  and  soul  testings,  that  we  might 
not  add  sorrow  to  his  sorrow. 

But  many  drank  large  draughts  at  the  ever-flowing 
spring  of  his  compassionate  love, — not  realizing  that  often 
his  distress  for  them  exceeded  their  distress  for  themselves. 

To  sympathy  for  distress,  he  added  that  which  is  pecu- 
liarly acceptable  to  the  wretched,  confidence  in  the  truthful- 
ness of  their  narratives.  His  capacity  to  trust  people  some- 
times amazed  those  better  acquainted  with  the  dark  side  of 
human  nature.  He  has  been  heard  to  say,  "The  man  who 
wants  me  most  is  the  man  to  whom  I  give  myself  the 
quickest." 

Was  he  not  often  deceived  by  the  selfish  and  ungrateful? 


6    Selected  psalms  ano  c^onograplrs 

Not  often, — yet  sometimes  he  may  have  been  imposed  upon. 
But  more  frequently  his  pride-debasing  humility  sank  him 
below  the  level  of  men  whom  he  knew  to  be  unworthy  in 
character  yet  needing  releif;  and  so,  because  he  received 
freely  of  the  things  he  did  not  deserve,  he  freely  gave  in  turn 
to  his  undeserving  brethren. 

To  love  others  as  he  loved  himself,  he  regarded  as  only 
second  to  the  great  duty  and  privilege  of  loving  the  Supreme 
Father  with  "all  his  soul,  with  all  his  mind,  with  all  his 
heart,  and  with  all  his  strength."  But  I  heard  him  once  say, 
reproaching  himself,  "How  difficult  it  is  to  love  some  people." 
And  yet  he  seemed  to  love  all  with  either  approval  or  pity. 

To  the  gifts  of  loving  sympathy  and  truthfulness,  he  was 
known  to  friends  as  possessing  a  well-balanced  endowment  of 
all  the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties. 

He  was  many  sided.  He  was  not  largely  developed  as 
a  mathematician,  and  yet  a  problem  which  could  not  be 
solved  by  other  teachers  yielded  its  secret  to  his  patient  in- 
vestigation. 

His  were  the  characteristics  of  a  great  scholar.  His  mind 
was  gifted  with  continuity  of  thought  and  power  to  absoio 
himself  in  the  subject  pursued,  excluding  the  irrelevant. 
When  only  a  boy  it  was  often  necessary  to  shake  him  by  the 
shoulder  to  awaken  him  from  the  scenes  depicted  in  the  book 
he  was  reading. 

His  memory  was  so  retentive  that  without  committing 
to  memory  he  could  repeat  the  long  poems  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  and  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  from  simply  reading  them 
over.  He  could  repeat  long  articles  and  hymns  from  reading 
them  but  once.  His  great  memory  stored  his  mind  with 
abundance  of  knowledge  when  but  a  boy.  Yet  he  was  not 
a  sponge  or  an  echo ;  but  better  a  living  tree,  self-rooted,  and 
fruit-bearing. 

One  afternoon,  returning  from  school,  the  town  Post- 
master stood  at  his  door,  and  said,  "Frederick,  read  for  me 
the  address  upon   this  letter."      And  when   Frederick  de- 


Eeth  jFreOerick  JLa  Eue  Mm       1 

clared  his  inability  to  do  so,  surprise  was  expressed,  and  he 
was  told,  "Why,  they  all  told  me  you  knew  everything." 

The  studious  boy  was  father  to  the  greater  adult  scholar. 
His  friends  did  not  stop  to  analyze  the  elements  of  the  loving 
admiration  with  which  they  regarded  him,  but  his  learning 
and  thought  had  weight  with  them.  So  did  his  morals  and 
religion.  His  brother  says,  that  from  boyhood  up  he  never 
heard  him  say  a  vile,  wicked  word. 

Doubtless  he  was  kept  from  flagrant  sin  through  dwell- 
ing in  the  holy  presence  of  his  Creator-Father,  with  whom 
he  communed  all  the  day  long.  This  would  explain  the  fact 
that  one  of  his  friends  remarked  that  his  was  the  "Whitest 
soul  she  was  ever  acquainted  with."  This  may  also  explain 
his  wonderful  personal  influence  upon  all  who  approached 
him.  His  frail  body  was  a  temple  of  the  Holy  spirit,  so  that 
in  a  limited  sense  there  went  out  from  this  living  sanctuary, 
as  from  our  blessed  Lord,  healing  virtue  to  those  who  came 
in  touch  with  him. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  there  lived  within  the 
bounds  of  his  congregation  a  woman  who  was  a  Spiritist, 
beset  by  demons  seeking  to  lead  her  into  perdition.  When 
sick  Mr.  King  visited  her,  and  the  woman  was  heard  to  say 
that  his  visits  neutralized  the  evil  influence  of  the  Spirits. 
Such  an  influence  emanated  from  him  all  through  his  life — 
and,  when  in  October,  1905,  he  was  slowly  passing  from 
earth  to  heaven,  a  gentleman  passing  through  an  oppressively 
bitter  experience  declared  that  he  was  unmistakably  strength- 
ened by  the  dying  minister's  sympathetic  spirit. 

But  what  towered  above  all  other  characteristics  and 
experiences  of  his  life  was  a  loving,  trustful  submission  to 
God's  righteous  Fatherly  will, — Whether  He  willed  sickness 
or  health,  ease  or  pain,  weakness  or  strength,  restrictions  or 
abundance,  joy  or  sorrow.  The  sin  of  sins  in  his  eyes,  was 
rebellion  against  the  Father's  merciful  and  wise  will.  An 
extract  from  a  letter  written  to  me  after  his  death  illustrates 
this  abiding  love  and  trust  in  God. 


S    ^electee  psalms  anD  a^onogtapfjs 

"One  little  incident  is  so  characteristic  of  the  nearness  of 
Mr.  King's  life  to  the  Christ  life  that  I  cannot  refrain  from 
mentioning  it  He  had  been  suffering  more  than  usual,  had 
slept  but  little  for  many  nights.  I  went  n  to  say  'Good  morn- 
ing,' and  found  him  Sniggling  for  breath.  Without  realiz- 
ing that  I  was  speaking  my  thought  aloud,  I  said, — 'Oh,  it  is 
too  hard,  too  cruel.'  A  look  of  p'in  greater  than  that  caused 
by  the  physical  suffering  passed  over  the  dear  face,  and  as 
soon  as  the  difficult  breathing  would  permit,  came  these 
words, — 'Never  say  or  think  that  again,  dear;  it  hurts  me 
more  than  all  the  pain.  I  am  better  now,  and  it  is  all  right; 
our  Father  knows  what  each  of  His  children  needs.' 

He  had  many  friends  who  regarded  him  as  a  great 
saint,  and  their  hearts  would  say  to  us,  "Mark  this  Perfect 
man,"  and  a  Roman  Catholic  of  great  learning  and  social 
eminence  in  the  Old  Church,  was  heard  to  call  him  "a 
saint." 

Nevertheless,  we  regard  it  as  the  crowning  excellence 
of  his  character,  that  he  was  profoundly  humble  and  free  from 
the  injurious  vice  of  proud  or  vain-glorious  egotistical  self- 
consciousness.  To  intelligent  friends,  especially  to  those 
confessing  to  the  infirmaries  of  ordinary  mortals,  this  was  the 
charm  of  all  that  was  charming  in  the  character  of  the  man 
we  are  portraying. 

He  compared  himself  not  with  other  men,  deprived  by 
circumstances  of  his  talents;  but  measured  himself,  as  we  ail 
should,  by  the  stature  of  the  One  perfect  man, — and  cried, 
as  we  should  confess, — "Unclean,  unclean.  God  be  merci- 
ful to  me  the  sinner." 

The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  to  an  old  friend 
shows  how  his  eager  spirit  was  imprisoned  to  the  very  end. 

"Dear 


Until  the  end  bear  fruit  in  old  age,  be  lowly.  Pray 
constantly  the  prayer  of  the  Publican.  And  neglect  not 
comunion  with  God  day  by  day.     Praise  Him,  thank  Him, 


Eeth  jfreOerick  iia  Bue  &tng        9 

and  live  with  Him.  As  for  me,  I  am  full  of  thanksgiving, 
and  yet  have  the  great  trial  of  seeing  to  my  hand  plenty  of 
work  that  I  am  prepared  to  do,  and  would  delight  to  do,  and 
which  I  cannot  touch  with  one  of  ny  fingers.  I  dare  not 
even  conduct  the  weekly  meeting  for  prayer.  I  have  thought 
something  of  going  to  Meadville  and  consulting  Dr.  Dewey. 
I  would  adopt  any  regimen  that  promised  to  remove  this 
that  destroys  my  life.  However,  I  "despise  not  the  chastise- 
ment of  the  Lord,"  and  will  not  faint  though  I  am  "rebuked 
of  Him."  It  has  not  separated  me  from  His  love,  and  shall 
not." 

But  through  all  his  trials  his  soul  was  fed  with  the 
manna  of  heaven. 

The  sacred  Scriptures  were  his  constant  delight.  The 
active  and  passive  obedience  of  Christ  as  his  substitute  was 
precious  in  his  eyes,  but  while  he  appreciated  the  glorious 
deeds  of  Christ  in  connection  with  his  first  coming,  that  did 
not  obscure  for  him  the  glory  of  the  second  coming  of  Jesus 
the  Messiah  to  reign  with  his  saints.  In  accordance  with 
Peter's  exhortation  he  was  "looikng  for  and  hastening  the 
coming  of  the  day  of  God,"  and  according  to  the  promise 
looking  for  a  "new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness." 

Writing  to  us  of  his  decease,  a  mutual  friend  pays  this 
tribute  to  his  memory: 

"Yesterday,  the  day  following  the  tidings,  was  'All 
Saints  Day,'  and  he  was  much  in  my  thoughts,  as  you  can- 
not doubt.  I  shall  always  love  to  dwell  upon  his  virtues; 
his  uncommon  gifts,  and  culture,  his  lofty  character,  his  high- 
toned  piety,  his  courtesy  and  gentleness,  the  unfailing  cheer- 
fulness with  which  he  bore  his  sufferings,  and  the  charm 
which  attached  all  to  him." 

The  mortal  remains  of  this  dear  brother  and  friend  were 
conveyed  to  the  family  burial  plot  in  Morristown,  New 
Jersey. 


10  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpfjs 

Upon  the  enduring  granite  are  inscribed  these  words: 

Rev.  Frederick  La  Rue  King. 

Jan.  2,  1823— Oct.  18,  1905. 

"Fallen  asleep  in   Christ." 

"I   am  the  resurrection  and  the  life." 

"I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness." 

In  closing  this  Biographical  Sketch,  we  call  attention  to 
the  fact,  that  owing  to  chronic  illness  his  life  may  be  character- 
ized as  being  "in  deaths  often,"  yet  it  was  not  until  he  reached 
the  ripe  age  of  eighty-three  that  his  soul  was  gently  released 
from  the  tabernacle  of  clay,  the  fetters  of  disease  struck  off; 
and  he  who  had  been  so  often  compelled  to  serve  by  standing 
and  waiting,  was  ushered  into  the  unhindered  and  untiring 
activities  of  the  Heavenly  life  in  the  presence  of  his  Lord. 

The  permission  was  asked,  and  granted,  by  the  Rev. 
A.  F.  Schauffler,  D.D.,  President  of  the  New  York  City 
Mission  and  Tract  Society,  to  print  his  private  letter  to  me 
upon  the  reception  of  the  sketch  of  my  brother's  life,  and 
which  was  dated  April  24th,  1909,  and  is  as  follows: 

"I  received  your  little  biography  of  your  Godly  brother. 
The  picture  of  him  is  most  life-like,  indeed,  far  more  so  than 
most  half  tones  are.  The  story  of  his  life  touched  my  heait 
and  reminded  me  of  my  intercourse  with  him  in  St.  Moritz 
years  ago.  You  certainly  have  not  overstated  the  Christlike- 
ness  of  his  character.  He  was  one  of  the  Godliest  men  that  it 
has  been  my  privilege  to  meet,  and  I  shall,  of  course,  be  glad 
that  I  saw  him  and  had  the  privilege  of  spiritual  converse 
with  so  sweet  a  character." 


EUto,  jFreOerick  La  I&ue  &ing       1 1 


#ob'S  (Electing  Hobe. 

"For  he  saith  to  Moses,  'I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I 
will  have  mercy  and  I  will  have  compassion  on  whom  I  will 
have  compassion.'" — Rom.  ix;  15. 

Here  is  a  statement  of  what  is  called  the  doctrine  of 
election — a  doctrine  perhaps  more  misused  than  any  other  re- 
vealed in  the  Word  of  God.  Misused  in  a  variety  of  ways, 
but  especially  in  one  that  is  a  most  strange  perversion  of  its 
real  nature  and  intent.  It  was  given  in  order  that  we  might 
be  filled  with  peace  and  joy  and  a  sense  of  freedom  and  lib- 
erty; but  as  it  is  used,  its  practical  effect  is  to  fetter  our  very 
souls.  It  was  given  that  we  might  once  for  all  see  the  gates 
of  Heaven  set  wide  open  and  the  whole  multitude  of  man- 
kind at  liberty  to  enter.  It  is  so  misused  that  we  are  too  apt  to 
conceive  those  gates  as  shut  and  locked  with  a  stern  keeper 
who,  though  myriads  apply  for  admission,  opens  the  gate 
only  for  one  here  and  there. 

This  is  wrong,  and  I  wish  to  show  that  the  sovereignty 
of  God  in  salvation  does  not  contract  its  scope  but  enlarges  it 
far  beyond  our  highest  conceptions  and  desires.  And  until 
you  feel  that  this  is  the  case,  you  have  not  really  understood 
the  doctrine  of  election. 

To  merely  believe  that  it  is  true  is  not  enough,  you  must 
be  glad  that  it  is  true,  you  must  be  able  to  use  it  for  your  peace 
and  comfort  and  joy,  or  else  you  are  totally  ignorant  of  it. 
You  must  not  tolerate  it  merely  as  you  would  tolerate  a  dis- 
agreeable guest  whom  you  cannot  send  away;  you  must 
warmly  welcome  and  dearly  love  it.  Suppose  one  of  the 
Esquimaux  savages  that  Dr.  Kane  saw  in  the  North,  who  live 
on  flesh  wholly,  were  presented  with  a  loaf  of  bread.  He 
would  know  its  shape,  its  color,  its  smell,  its  size,  its  hard- 
ness, its  weight;  but  what,  after  all,  would  he  know  about 


12  Selected  psalms  ana  opcmograpijs 

the  loaf  till  he  knew  that  it  was  good  to  eat?  So  believe  me, 
brethren,  we  do  not  know  anything  about  a  doctrine  until 
we  know  what  that  doctrine  will  do  for  us. 

What  reason  would  there  be  for  God's  revealing  to  us 
a  particular  class  of  truths  if  those  truths  were  not  to  be  of 
practical  spiritual  benefit  to  us?  When  we  see  a  mother 
carrying  food  to  her  infant,  we  know  that  of  all  the  kinds  of 
food  that  she  has,  she  selects  that  which  it  can  enjoy  and 
thrive  by.  And  so  when  God  reveals  to  us  divine  things  in  His 
Word,  we  may  be  sure  that  from  all  the  infinite  depths  of 
knowledge.  He  has  selected  those  truths  by  which  we  can 
profit;  and  if  we  do  not  enjoy  and  thrive  by  them,  it  is  either 
because  our  hearts  are  not  right,  or  else  the  doctrines  are  not 
understood. 

"I  will  have  mercy  upon  whom  I  will  have  mercy,  and 
I  will  have  compassion  upon  whom  I  will  have  compassion." 
To  the  soul  that  is  truly  filial  and  confiding,  this  doctrine  is 
really  the  Gospel  itself,  a  wide  and  grand  annunciation  of 
God's  mercy  to  a  fallen  world;  than  which  no  wider  or 
grander  could  be  made.  Many  methods  might  be  taken  to 
show  this.  I  wish  now  to  present  an  historical  method.  I 
wish  to  show  what  this  doctrine  did  for  the  Church  at  the 
three  great  epochs  when  it  was  prominently  announced. 
Three  great  men,  one  the  greatest  Apostle,  one  the  greatest 
Church  Father,  one  the  greatest  Protestant  theologian,  an- 
nounced this  as  a  most  blessed  and  precious  truth. 

My  inquiry  now  is:  Why  was  this  truth  good  news  to 
Paul,  and  to  those  for  whom  he  labored?  to  Augustine  and 
the  Church  of  the  fourth  century?  and  to  John  Calvin  and 
the  Church  of  the  sixteenth  century? 

The  inquiry  will  then  come  with  some  force,  Why  should 
it  not  be  precious  and  blessed  to  us  of  the  present  time? 

First  then,  Paul  not  only  here,  but  elsewhere  throughout 
this  episde,  tells  us  that  God  of  His  own  free  and  sovereign 
will  chooses  whom  he  will  save.  This  is  no  mere  abstract 
philosophical-theological  speculation;  it  is  a  practical  truth 


Rett*  jfteOctick  1U  Rue  Eing       13 

and  one  which  sent  a  thrill  of  joy  through  the  hearts  of  those 
to  whom  he  preached. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  epistle  you  will  find  that  it  is 
addressed  "To  all  that  be  in  Rome,  beloved  of  God."  Cir- 
cumcised or  uncircumcised,  it  made  no  difference,  for  all  were 
now  called.  The  old  economy  might  be  likened  to  a  tree. 
For  ages  had  it  been  putting  forth  its  leaves,  for  ages  had  it 
been  blossoming,  and  now  Paul  was  plucking  the  ripe  fruit 
from  the  branches  and  giving  it  to  the  uncircumcision.  He 
was  inviting  the  Gentile,  without  becoming  any  the  less  a 
Gentile  to  enter  into  all  the  rich  results,  the  priceless  blessings 
of  the  old  dispensation.  Oh!  how  the  hard-hearted  Jews 
gnashed  their  teeth  at  thd  sight!  It  is  almost  impossible  for 
us  to  conceive  the  horror  and  rage  that  filled  them  when  they 
saw  one  of  their  nation  taking  the  lead  in  promulgating  such 
traitorous  views.  At  Jerusalem,  merely  upon  Paul's  saying 
that  Christ,  when  he  saw  Him  the  second  time  in  the  Temple, 
commissioned  him  to  go  and  preach  to  the  Gentiles,  the  mul- 
titude of  Jews  were  transposed  with  frenzy,  threw  dust 
into  the  air  and  cried,  "Away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the 
earth,  for  it  is  not  fit  that  he  should  live." 

The  truth  is  that  the  Jews  thought  that  all  the  blessings 
of  the  covenant  with  God  were  as  exclusively  theirs  as  any  of 
you  regard  any  piece  of  property  as  exclusively  yours.  They 
held  that  the  Gentiles  could  share  in  these  blessings  only  by 
becoming  one  of  themselves,  by  being  circumcised  and  keep- 
ing the  whole  ceremonial  law. 

As  to  themselves,  they  felt  perfectly  confident.  They 
were  Abraham's  children,  God's  covenant  was  made  with 
Abraham  and  his  seed,  and  therefore  they  wete  perfectly  safe. 
And  in  all  this  the  sacred  Sciiptures  seemed  to  bear  them 
out.  Paul,  in  the  third  chapter  of  Galatians,  says,  "Now  to 
Abraham  and  his  seed  were  the  promises  made."  That 
would  go  to  show  that  if  one  were  a  child  of  Abraham  he 
would  certainly  inherit  the  promises.  And  see  the  latter  part 
of  the  verse,  "He  saith  not  seeds  as  of  many  (that  is  of  many 


14  Selected  P0alm$  and  af)onogtapi)$ 

races  or  families),  but  as  of  one,  and  to  thy  seed."  This 
would  seem  to  exclude  the  Gentiles,  for  it  distinctly  asserted 
that  only  the  race  of  Abraham  could  inherit  the  promises. 
Now  then,  in  this  state  were  the  Jews  confidently  expecting 
their  own  salvation  because  of  their  natural  descent,  and 
proudly  excluding  the  Gentiles  because  of  their  natural  de- 
scent. They  felt  assured  that  God  had  bound  himself  by  a 
promise  He  could  not  break,  to  save  them  all  and  to  deny 
salvation  to  the  Gentiles.  They  thought  that  God  existed  but 
for  them,  that  His  infinite  mercies  were  to  be  exhibited  only 
towards  them,  and  the  illimitable  resources  of  His  power, 
goodness  and  love  were  to  be  exerted  only  in  their  behalf. 

It  was  to  thwart  and  crush  such  a  sentiment  as  this  that 
Paul  announces  the  great  doctrine  of  the  text  that  God's  will 
is  not  bound  at  all,  that  He  is  not  obliged  to  save  every  Jew 
or  to  deny  salvation  to  any  Gentile;  that  no  Jew  should  feel 
secure,  that  no  Gentile  should  despair.  That  no  matter  what 
He  had  promised  to  Abraham,  He  was  still  free  to  save 
whom  He  pleased.  "I  will  have  mercy  upon  whom  I  will 
have   mercy." 

Suppose  in  a  certain  village  there  were  a  number  of 
orphans,  and  a  good  man  had  promised  to  take  care  of  them 
all;  and  had  built  a  house  with  pleasant  grounds  and  every 
comfort,  where;  he  lived  with  them.  Now,  suppose  that 
through  the  pailings  of  the  fence  a  little  ragged  boy  from  an- 
other village  should  wistfully  peep  and  beg  of  the  children 
who  were  playing  within  that  he  might  be  admitted,  too; 
and  they  should  say  to  him,  "Away  with  you!  This  is  for 
us.  The  owner  has  bound  himself  to  keep  it  for  us  alone." 
This  would  illustrate  the  position  of  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile. 
The  Jew  thought  that  he  possessed  all,  that  the  Gentile  had 
nothing.  Now,  suppose  the  owner  of  the  house  had  over- 
heard what  was  said  and  should  turn  to  those  who  had 
repulsed  the  poor  little  stranger  with  these  words:  "I  am  not 
bound  to  keep  this  place  exclusively  for  you.  I  can  admit 
whom   I   please.      I   will   even  place   this   little   ragged   boy 


Eetn  jfreDetick  La  Eue  lining       15 

amongst  you  and  let  him  enjoy  all  that  you  enjoy."  There 
we  have  an  illustration  of  the  doctrine  of  election.  Another 
illustration  is  the  parable  of  the  laborers.  Those  who  came 
at  the  eleventh  hour  received  as  much  as  those  who  had 
borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  And  when  the  rest 
murmured,  the  employer  of  all  said,  "Is  it  not  lawful  for  me 
to  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own?  I  said  that, I  would  give 
a  penny  for  the  work  of  a  day,  but  that  does  not  prevent  me 
from  giving  a  penny  for  the  work  of  an  hour  or  for  no  work 
at  all."  There  again  is  the  doctrine  of  election,  which  is 
this,  that  the  loving  will  of  God  knows  no  restrictions,  and  is 
in  no  respect  hampered  in  its  exercise.  This  was  the  doctrine 
that  like  a  mighty  battering  ram  assailed  the  high  walls  that 
the  Jew  had  erected  around  the  city  of  God.  It  smote 
them  till  they  rocked  to  their  foundations,  till  they  fell  flat  and 
laid  the  city  open  on  all  sides,  and  then  from  beside  "That 
fount  that  flowed  fast  by  the  oracle  of  God,"  arose  the  cry 
of  invitation  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  "Ho,  every  one 
that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters."  "And  the  Spirit  and 
the  Bride  say  come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say  come. 
And  let  him  that  is  athirst  come.  And  whosoever  will,  let 
him  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely." 

Is  there  not  reason  enough  why  Paul  should  love  this 
doctrine  and  make  it  prominent  in  his  teachings  ? 

Three  hundred  years  had  rolled  away  since  Paul 
preached  and  wrote.  The  Church  had  been  occupied  with 
many  things.  She  had  selected  and  separated  from  all  other 
writings  the  inspired  books  of  the  New  Testament.  She  had 
settled  the  doctrines  with  regard  to  the  person  of  the  Saviour, 
and  now  she  began  to  study  herself.  The  nature  of  the 
remedy  which  God  had  provided  had  hitherto  occupied  her, 
now  she  began  to  examine  the  disease.  The  Church  of  God 
at  that  time  was  like  some  of  us  who,  after  hearing  a  great 
many  instructions,  and  getting  a  great  deal  of  fancied  knowl- 
edge, suddenly  have  our  attention  arrested  and  our  gaze 
turned  upon  ourselves,  and  the  evil  of  our  hearts. 


16  Selected  psalms  and  3£onogtap£* 

The  fourth  century  was  an  age  when  men  were  con- 
vinced of  sin,  perhaps  more  than  at  any  time  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race. 

At  this  time  men  everywhere  are  exerting  their  facul- 
ties to  the  utmost  to  make  transit  horn  place  to  place  speedy 
— to  have  the  means  of  sending  intelligence  in  an  instant  all 
over  the  world,  to  make  machines  of  great  power  able  to  pro- 
duce the  most  complicated  manufactures.  Men  are  striving 
for  power,  everywhere.  Now  imagine  a  time  when  the  civ- 
ilized world  with  an  eagerness  and  an  enthusiasm  not  unlike 
that  which  we  see  nowadays  in  materials  things  was  striving, 
not  after  power,  but  to  get  rid  of  sin.  The  busy  brain  was  at 
work  inventing  then  as  now,  but  not  inventing  contrivances 
to  develop  power  but  contrivances  to  wipe  away  sin  from 
the  heart  of  man.  Time  would  fail  were  I  only  to  indicate 
even  in  the  briefest  way  the  schemes  and  institutions,  some  of 
them  vaster  than  anything  that  we  have  at  the  present  day, 
which  occupied  the  attention  and  made  busy  the  lives  of  men, 
and  which  had  for  their  sole  object  the  purification  of  men 
from  sin. 

Added  to  this  was  a  general  feeling  of  desertion 
by  God.  The  Goths  and  Vandals  were  then  com- 
mencing their  attacks  upon  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  when  Rome  itself  was  taken  Christian  people 
began  to  despair.  God  seemed  to  be  pursuing  them 
for  their  sins  to  their  utter  destruction;  the  world  seemed 
coming  to  an  end.  Now  almost  always  when  such  an  intense 
feeling  pervades  the  people  of  a  time,  this  feeling  finds  its 
representative  in  one  man  who  goes  through  all  the  conflict 
that  the  age  is  going  through,  only  in  an  intenser  form  and 
who  sometimes  is  permitted  to  discover  and  administer  a 
remedy  to  the  disease  of  the  time. 

So  was  it  now.  Augustine  of  Carthage  had  been  a 
great  sinner,  and  if  there  was  ever  a  man  who  had  sounded 
the  depths  of  sin  in  his  heart,  he  was  that  man.  And  no 
one  that  ever  lived  strove  more  earnestly  to  purify  himself 
from  every  taint  of  sin. 


Iftetn  jFreDetick  La  Eue  ifting       17 

The  most  plausible  system  of  the  age,  the  Manichean 
system,  he  tried  faithfully  for  years.  Vain  effort.  It  was  all 
of  no  avail. 

He  saw  clearly  that  there  was  nothing  in  him  that 
could  be  pleasing  to  God,  and  years  of  struggle  had  taught 
him  that  sin  was  something  too  mighty  to  be  battled  with; 
that  human  nature  was  forever  held  fast  in  its  serpent  coils; 
that  it  reached  deep  into  and  tainted  the  inmost  nature  of  man. 
Unholy,  guilty,  helpless,  in  the  power  of  sin;  he  was  in  the 
presence  of  Him  who  pronounced  death  against  the  sinner. 
What  was  it  that  drew  Augustine  out  of  this  horrible  pit 
and  miry  clay  and  made  him  a  deliverer  to  thousands  on 
thousands  of  his  day ;  and  the  stay  and  support  of  the  Church 
through  the  night  of  ages,  till  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation? 
It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  text,  "I  will  have  mercy  upon  whom 
I  will  have  mercy."  It  was  a  mercy  founded  on  the  arbi- 
trary will  of  God  that  was  just  suited  to  Augustine's  case. 
No  other  mercy  could  be  conceived  of  when  once  the 
soul  had  conceived  of  sin.  Augustine  felt  that  he 
needed  a  mercy  that  looked  for  nothing  in  the  sinner;  and  he 
found  it.  And  it  was  through  him  that  the  Western  Church, 
before  any  other  church,  came  to  a  consciousness  of  the 
utterly  ruined  estate  of  man  by  sin,  and  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  sovereignty  of  God  in  salvation.  Woe  be  to  us  if  God 
is  not  sovereign  in  salvation,  for  He  has  declared,  "The  soul 
that  sinneth,  it  shall  die;"  and  woe  be  to  us  if  Satan's  true 
accusations  can  bind  God  to  the  punishment  of  the  guilty 
wretch.  But  it  is  not  so.  Just  as  the  doctrine  of  election  in 
the  time  of  Paul  established  the  freedom  of  God  to  save  even 
a  Gentile,  so  in  the  time  of  Augustine  the  doctrine  of  election 
established  the  freedom  of  God  to  save  even  a  sinner.  And 
through  the  long  night  of  time  that  followed  it  was  the  writ- 
ings of  Augustine  that  showed  to  a  darkened  church  that  right- 
eousness and  peace  had  kissed  each  other,  and  that  God  could 
be  just  and  yet  the  Justifier  of  him  who  had  broken  his  holy  law. 


18  ^electeD  psaim0  anD  sponograp&s 

And  needful  was  it  that  God  should  have  such  a  witness, 
for  as  twelve  hundred  years  rolled  away,  a  spiritual  tyranny 
settled  down  upon  the  Church  more  terrible  than  before  or 
since  has  afflicted  men.  A  hierarchy,  from  the  Pope  upon 
his  throne  down  through  cardinals,  archbishops,  bishops,  even 
to  the  parish  priest,  held  the  spiritual  destinies  of  men  in  its 
iron  grasp. 

It  opened,  and  no  man  could  shut;  it  shut,  and  no  man 
could  open.  Its  decisions  were  decisions  for  eternity.  The 
court  of  heaven  registered  its  every  act,  and  from  it  there  was 
no  appeal.  Having  granted  it  the  privileges  that  what  it 
bound  on  earth  should  be  bound  in  Heaven,  and  what  it 
loosed  on  earth  should  be  loosed  in  Heaven,  God  had  put 
into  its  hand  the  eternal  destinies  of  men.  The  wretch  upon 
whom  its  cold  malignity  was  directed  had  nothing  to  hope 
for  in  this  world  or  the  next.  Whoever  questioned  its  pur- 
ity, doubted  its  dogmas,  or  defied  its  power,  had  not  only 
supple  kings  for  his  executioners,  but  all  the  dread  powers  of 
the  upper  spaces,  when  the  culprit  should  escape  thither. 

Why  was  it  that  the  reformers  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury; why  did  a  Luther  and  a  Calvin  again  take  up  and  pro- 
claim anew  the  doctrine  of  Paul  and  Augustine?  It  was 
because  it  dashed  the  scepter  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Pope, 
and  the  crozier  out  of  the  grasp  of  the  bishop,  and  declared 
once  more  the  spiritual  liberties  of  mankind.  "Priest,  pre- 
late, pope,"  the  emancipated  serf  could  exclaim,  "You  can- 
not tie  up  God  by  any  engagement  so  that  he  shall  not  have 
perfect  freedom  in  salvation." 

"Notwithstanding  all  the  powers  He  has  granted  to 
His  church,  after  all,  salvation  is  as  He  wills,  not  as  you  will. 
Excommunicate  if  you  please;  I  can  appeal  and  He  will 
hear  and  issue  the  appeal.  God  says,  though  Rome  curses, 
'I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I  will  have  mercy.'  The  doc- 
trine of  election  is  the  very  charter  of  our  liberties.  If  God 
is  sovereign,  then  man  is  free. 


Beth  jFreOericfe  La  Eue  l&ing        19 

*Modern  history  establishes  the  truthfulness  of  this 
claim.  Sections  or  denominations  of  the  universal  Christian 
Church,  in  the  form  of  their  church  government,  lean  more 
or  less  towards  the  Republican,  as  their  Creeds,  or  Confes- 
sions of  Faith,  affirm  or  deny  God's  sovereignty. 

And,  as  we  might  expect,  in  those  countries  where  are 
found  Christians  living  under  a  Church  government  yielding 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  in  numbers  sufficient  to  influence  the 
government  of  the  State,  as  in  free  America,  there  do  we  find 
state  and  federal  governments  more  or  less  Republican,  as 
their  population  absorb  or  reject  the  universal  sovereignty  of 
our  Creator-Father. 

Yes;  beyond  a  question,  the  doctrine  of  election  is  the 
very  charter  of  our  liberties.  If  God  is  sovereign,  then  man 
is  free. 

Election  is  a  free  salvation,  not  the  bondage  imposed 
by  a  tyrant;  and  as  such  is  the  foundation  and  cornerstone 
of  our  trust,  peace,  hope,  liberty  and  joy. 

The  Bible  declares  that  the  grace  of  election  which 
saves  the  helpless  sinner  is  proved  to  have  reached  him  with 
its  friendly  arm  of  Almighty  power,  since  he  through  faith 
draws  down  upon  himself  the  "sprinkling  of  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ"  unto  justification,  and  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  by  whom  he  is  sanctified  unto  obedience. 

Listen  to  the  Apostle  Peter  (Petros — Stone)  whose 
evangelical  words  are  a  (petra)  rock  on  which  we  can  rest 
our  wearied  souls.  I  Peter,  1:2:  "Elect  according  to  the 
foreknowledge  of  God  the  Father,  through  sanctification  of 
the  Spirit,  unto  obedience  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

A  building  may  be  so  heavy  as  to  crush  its  foundation. 
God's  electing  love  towards  hell-deserving  sinners  is  a  foun- 
dation rock  (petra). 

Let  us  test  this  foundation  by  placing  upon  it  the  heav- 
iest, because  the  saddest,  truth  of  all  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
What  is  this  but  the  pretention  (passing  by),  or  reprobation 
(rejection)  of  stubborn,  God-defying  sinners? 

*From  this   point  to   the   end   of  the  sermon,  the  writing  is  done   by 
Mr.  King's  brother.  A.  B.  K. 


20  Selected  psalms  and  ^onograpfjs 

Fact  1 .  Let  us  weigh  this  in  the  scales  of  God's  jus- 
tice and  mercy.  At  one  end  of  the  scales  is  the  cup  in 
which  is  placed  reprobation.  At  the  other  end  we  place  with 
confession  of  sin  and  self-abhorence  the  fact  that  we  all  de- 
serve the  endless  fire  and  undying  worm  of  hell.  Many  of 
God's  elect  realize  it  in  this  world,  and  all  others  of  the  race 
will  realize  it  in  the  world  of  spirits. 

The  sense  of  guilt  with  most  of  God's  saints  is  weighty 
enough  to  counterbalance  the  awful  depression  created  by 
pretention,  or  the  passing  by  of  those  who  resist  God's 
Spirit  too  long.  Some  saints  have  even  been  willing  to  be 
damned  if  thus  God  may  be  more  perfectly  justified  and 
glorified. 

But  there  are  tens  of  thousands  living  in  Christendom 
who  are  true  saints,  but  not  so  heroic  as  these,  and  therefore 
require  other  weighty  facts  cast  into  the  opposite  scale. 

Fact  2.  God  takes  no  delight  in  the  eternal  death  of 
any  sinner.  Ezekiel  18:  31,  32:  "Why  will  ye.  die,  O 
house  of  Israel  ?  For  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  him 
that  dieth,  saith  the  Lord  God;  wherefore  turn  yourselves, 
and  live  ye." 

Fact  3.  God's  will  and  Christ's  sacrificial  pity  are  the 
two  arms  of  love  thrown  around  the  reprobate,  but  he  breaks 
away  from  the  shielding  pressure,  and  madly  prefers  to  per- 
ish than  give  up  his  idol  sins. 

II  Peter,  3:9:  "The  Lord***is  not  willing  (wishing) 
that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repen- 
tance." 

I  Tim.,  2:4:  "Who  (God  our  Saviour)  will  have  all 
men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  unto  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth." 

I  Tim.,  4:10:  "Who  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  speci- 
ally of  those  Who  believe." 

John  3:16:  "For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  only  begotten  son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 

Heb.  2:9:  "That  He  by  the  grace  of  God  should 
taste  death  for  every  man." 


Eeto.  ^Frederick  La  I&ue  fting       21 

It  is  easy  to  believe  that  as  Jesus  wept  over  Jerusalem, 
so  He  must  weep  over  all  of  the  race  eternally  lost,  for  did 
He  not  suffer  unto  death  that  there  might  be  accumulated 
merit  to  cancel  the  guilt  of  all  men?  He  suffered  and  died  for 
the  lost. 

It  is  Jesus  who  says  to  the  majority  of  the  race,  "Ye  will 
not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life." 

Why  does  not  the  Omnipotent  Saviour  force  rebellious 
sinners  to  receive  repentance  unto  life?  Because  this  would 
destroy  their  free  agency  and  moral  accountability.  "He 
that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned." 

Fact  4.  It  is  in  harmony  with  man's  freedom  of  will 
that  God  elects  him  to  eternal  life,  for  the  Bible  plainly 
asserts  that  those,  and  only  those  who  believe  gospel  truth 
and  are  being  sanctified  by  the  Spirit  are  elected  or  chosen. 
II.  Thess.  2:13  "God  hath  from  the  beginning  chosen 
(elected)  you  to  salvation  through  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth." 

So,  if  you  are  trusting  in  Jesus,  who  is  the  truth,  and 
yielding  your  life  to  the  control  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  you  are 
beyond  a  doubt  one  of  the  elect.  Is  that  hard  and  repulsive? 
Does  it  not  strengthen  and  exhilarate  your  soul  ? 

Fact  5.  But  do  not  both  our  Lord  Jesus  and  the 
Apostle  Paul  plainly  assert  the  fact  that  certain  members 
of  our  race  are  reprobated?  Yes, — but  of  whom  is  it  asserted, 
— for  this  makes  all  the  difference  practically  between  its 
truth  and  falsehood.  If  told  to  the  earnest,  penitent  seeker 
of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ,  as  if  by  possibility  he 
could  be  patsed  by  and  reprobated  by  the  decree  of  his 
Heavenly  Father,  that  would  be  a  monstrous,  cruel  false- 
hood. 

Therefore,  listen  as  if  all  the  strength  and  acuteness 
of  your  soul  resolved  itself  into  a  gigantic  ear,  into  which 
I  was  pouring  these  words. 

Paul,  in  Romans  8:33,  speaking  to  persecuted  Chris- 
tian believers,  comforts  them  by  the  words,  "Who  shall  lay 


22  ©elected  psalms  and  ^onograpfjs 

anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect?  It  is  God  (the 
righteous  Judge)  who  justifieth"  you. 

But  the  same  Paul,  in  the  next  chapter,  when  speaking 
to  rebellious  opposers  of  God's  sovereignty,  intimates  that 
they  are  in  character  similar  to  stubborn,  hard-hearted 
Pharaoh;  and  so  in  compassion  to  them  who  are  guilty  of 
proud,  stubborn  wilfulness,  He  seeks  to  humble  them,  that 
they  may  seek  mercy  at  their  Creator's  hands. 

Roman  9:  20-22.  "Nay,  but  O  man,  who  art  thou 
that  replieth  (disputeth)  against  God?  Shall  the  thing 
formed  say  to  Him  that  formed  it,  why  has  thou  made  me 
thus?  Hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay,  of  the  same 
lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto  honor,  and  another  unto  dis- 
honor?" 

"What  if  God,  willing  (purposing)  to  show  His  wrath, 
and  to  make  His  power  known,  endured  with  much  long 
suffering  the  vessels  of  wrath,  fitted  to  destruction?" 

Thus  Paul  seeks  to  awaken  these  Pharaoh-like  rebels 
to  a  sense  of  guilt  and  danger,  in  a  merciful  effort  to  save 
them  from  God's  wrath.  A  surgeon  once  told  me  he  saved 
a  man  who  was  on  the  border  land  of  death  from  Creeping 
Paralysis.  He  used  a  desperate  remedy  for  a  desperate  case. 
Into  the  flesh,  fast  becoming  insensible,  he  plunged  long,  large 
pins,  and  continued  this  heroic  treatment  until  finally  reaction 
set  in,  and  the  patient  was  saved,  as  by  a  miracle. 

There  are  but  few  instances  where  New  Testament 
teachers  are  obliged  to  resort  to  such  heroic  treatment  in  efforts 
to  save  proud,  sneering  rebels,  fast  slipping  down  into  the 
abyss  of  Gehenna.  The  life  of  our  Lord  furnishes  two 
instances. 

Jesus  came  to  Nazareth,  His  early  home,  and  in  the 
Synagogue  preached  the  sweetest  of  gospel  sermons  from 
Isaiah  61  :l,  "And  all  bare  Him  witness,  and  wondered  at 
the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth." 
Then  yielding  to  a  temptation  of  the  Devil,  they  began  to 
sneer  and  belittle  him. 


KetK  jfreDetick  La  Iftue  ding       23 

What  can  Jesus  do  for  them  now?  Their  (possible) 
Saviour,  still  seeking  their  salvation,  plunged  into  their  souls 
the  thorny  truth  of  "The  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God." 
(See  Isaiah  61  :2.)  Yes,  Jesus  plunges  a  thorn  into  the 
proud  flesh  of  His  fellow  townsmen,  in  declaring  pretention; 
for  it  is  indicated  by  Jehovah's  action  in  sending  Elijah  to  only 
one  widow  for  the  supply  of  her  needs,  and  passing  by  many 
other  widows,  just  as  needy  probably.  Then  Jesus  plunged 
another  thorn  of  pretention  into  the  flesh  of  His  audience, — 
in  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that,  although,  there  were 
many  lepers  in  Israel,  Elisha  was  sent  to  only  Naaman,  the 
Syrian,  with  healing  power,  and  the  others  were  not  selected 
for  the  blessing.  This  inflamed  His  audience  to  a  murderous 
rage,  and  they  made  the  attempt  to  kill  Him. 

Both  the  sweet  of  the  gospel  and  the  bitter  of  God's  decree 
failed  to  do  good  to  these  sinners  against  light. 

Once  more,  in  John  6:37,  Jesus  gave  a  message  to  the 
quarrelsome,  unbelieving  Jews,  which  implied  reprobation 
in  the  words,  "All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to 
me,"  and  in  the  last  clause  of  the  same  verse  He  gives  this 
cheering  encouragement  to  honest,  yet  timid  seekers  of  Him- 
self,— "And  him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out." 

What  could  give  greater  assurance  that  all  those  who 
come  to  Jesus  in  faith  are,  each  and  all,  God's  elect? 

And  what  can  I,  and  what  can  you,  who  "fear  God" 
and  tremble  at  His  word,"  desire,  ask  for,  or  possess  more 
precious  than  this,  the  assurance  of  Jesus  Himseslf,  that  we 
who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  His  outstretched  arms  ARE 
God's  elect,  who  can  "never  come  into  condemnation,"  but 
"are  passed  from  death  unto  life?" 

But  in  the  narrative  of  this  same  chapter,  John  6:64, 
we  find  Jesus  discovered  who  "believed  not  and  who  should 
betray  Him."  And  so  as  a  last  effort  of  well-nigh  hopeless 
mercy  we  see  Him  thrust  the  thorn  of  reprobation  again 
into  their  wicked  and  angry  souls,  saying  (verse  65)  "There- 


24  ©elected  Psalms  and  *©onogtap&* 

fore  said  I  unto  you,  that  no  man  can  come  unto  me,  except 
it  were  (be)  given  unto  him  of  my  Father."  Oh,  the  sad 
words  of  the  next  verse  (66),  "  From  that  time  many  of 
His  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  Him." 

The  compassionate  physician  of  souls  was,  in  appearance, 
defeated  in  His  severe,  yet  loving  efforts  to  restore  healthy 
normal  action  to  these  wicked  souls  paralyzed  by  self-will, 
unbelief,  love  of  sin,  and  hatred  of  that  righteousness,  personi- 
fied and  exhibited  in  the  words  and  works  of  Jesus. 

We  have  now  ascertained  that  sadly  heavy  pretention  or 
reprobation  is  made  light  as  an  angel's  wing  by  the  five  other 
weighty  truths  which  we  have  furnished  as  a  counter-balance. 

Our  souls  are  stirred  with  joy  when  we  read  our  Sav- 
iour's words  recorded  in  John  5  :24,  "Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  He  that  heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  on  Him 
that  sent  me,  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into 
condemnation:  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life." 

And  this  joy  should  be  made  boundless  and  endless  by 
accepting  the  fact  that  those  thus  "passing  from  death  unto 
life"  are  beyond  a  doubt  of  the  number  of  God's  elect. 

And  all  this  love,  all  this  grace,  and  all  this  free, 
full  salvation  is  true,  notwithstanding  all  the  past,  all  the 
present  and  all  the  future  of  our  imperfect  lives  on  earth. 

Election  saves  us  from  the  iron  grasp  of  our  three 
destructive  enemies.  Our  fleshly  nature  defiantly  says  to 
God, — "I  hate  you.  I  love  my  sins,  and  reject  Thy  Son, 
who  saves  His  people  from  their  sins.  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
saved  from  my  sins."  This  is  a  mighty  will,  but  the 
Almighty  will  of  our  sovereign  Father  says,  "I  will  have 
mercy,"  and  the  Flesh  is  throttled,  if  not  killed;  yea,  we  have 
a  new  self. 

The  World  defiantly  says,  "I  am  the  friend  of  mighty 
Satan,  and  am  saturated  with  the  deceitful  wickedness  of  the 
Devil  and  Hell,  and  I  attack  the  weak  sinner,  and  press  him 
close  on  every  side,  and  he  cannot  escape  from  me."  This  is  a 
mightier  will,  but  the  Almighty  will  of  our  sovereign  Father 


Rett*  JFreOericfe  La  Rue  King       25 

says, — "I  will  have  mercy,"  and  the  World  is  paralyzed, 
and  relaxes  its  hold. 

The  Devil,  "that  Old  Serpent,"  is  coiled  about  the 
sinner  in  his  increasing  indulgence  of  sinful  habits.  The  Ser- 
pent hisses,  "I  am  the  actual  sovereign  of  this  world.  The 
great  God  has  given  it  to  me.  As  the  buzzard  and  vulture 
have  a  legal  right  to  the  offal  and  vile  wastes  of  the  earth, 
so  have  I  a  legal  right  to  you,  a  part  of  the  moral  refuse  of 
the  world.  You  are  mine,  and  cannot  escape."  Satan's 
will  is  still  more  powerful,  but  the  Almighty  will  of  our 
Sovereign  Father  utters  the  decrees  of  election, — "I  will  have 
mercy  upon  whom  I  will  have  mercy,"  and  the  Old  Serpent 
uncoils  himself,  and  retreats  to  the  bottomless  pit.  Hallelujah! 

God's  Almighty  grace  in  election  conquers  the  enemies  of 
His  people.  The  Lord  God,  Omnipotent  in  His  love,  reign- 
eth,  and  the  fiat  of  that  love  reaches  with  controlling  force 
both  the  terrified  ears  of  our  deadly  enemies  and  our  delighted 
ears;  and  we  drink  in  with  increasing  thirst  those  words  of 
Salvation, — "I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I  will  have  mercy, 
and  I  will  have  compassion  on  whom  I  will  have  compas- 
sion." 


26  Selected  psalms  and  £$onograpt)s 


W$t  g>tstme  Jffla&otma. 

This  picture  appears  to  have  been  painted,  not  to  be 
set  up  as  an  idol  in  a  church,  or  to  be  an  article  of  virtu 
in  the  galleries  of  the  rich,  but  to  be  used  merely  as  a  banner 
in  church  processions.  Intended  thus  to  be  borne  along 
amid  a  throng  of  bowing  worshippers  as  part  of  a  pomp,  and 
not  to  be  contemplated;  the  monks  who  ordered  it  wished  in 
all  probability  simply  a  splendid  Madonna,  and  were  indif- 
ferent to  the  details.  This  may  be  the  reason  why  Raphael, 
for  once  free  from  the  dictation  of  patrons,  or  the  petty 
details  of  mere  material  beauty,  was  enabled  to  pour  forth 
freely  his  powers,  and  set  forth  the  situation  of  Mary  as 
mother  of  the  Lord,  in  dramatic  completeness. 

Raphael's  Madonnas  are  generally  abstract,  for  the 
most  part  representing  simply  motherhood.  The  Sistine 
Madonna  is  the  true  Mother  of  the  Lord,  painted  as  at  some 
moment  of  her  transcendent  experience.  This  is  indicated 
by  the  curtain  flung  back,  as  if,  on  the  instant  revealing  not 
only  Mary  to  us,  but  to  Mary  something  that  has  been 
before  her.  We  may  well  imagine  that  it  represents  the  high- 
est and  grandest  moment  of  Mary's  spiritual  experience. 
What  was  this  moment?  There  is  in  the  portico  of  the  old 
Portinari  Hospital  at  Florence, — Santa  Maria  Nuova, — a 
fresco  representing  the  Conception,  in  which  Mary,  bathed 
in  the  light  of  an  approaching  glory,  and  surrounded  with 
angelic  creatures  full  of  frolic  joy,  is  shown  as  averted  and 
bending — perfectly  passive  in  the  presence  of  what  was 
coming  upon  her.  "Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord,  be  it 
unto  me  according  to  thy  word."  And  doubtless  this  was 
her  frame  of  mind  at  the  beginning  of  her  strange  and  myste- 
rious office.  For  there  was  much  to  endure.  But  there  came 
a  time  when,  if  only  for  an  instant,  simple  endurance  gave 


Ifteto.  jFreDeuck  La  IRtte  ifting       27 

place  to  something  spontaneous,  and  the  acceptance  of  her 
position  as  Mother  of  the  Lord  partook  of  the  nature  of  an 
act.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  case  at  her  visit  to  Eliza- 
beth, when,  beginning  to  realize  who  it  was  to  whom  she 
was  to  give  birth;  she  burst  forth  into  joyous  song,  exulting 
that  God  through  her  child-bearing  was  about  to  deliver  her 
people.  If,  however,  we  should  choose  the  point  of  time, 
most  likely  to  be  associated  with  such  an  exalted  spiritual 
experience,  we  would  take  the  instant,  when,  at  the  Presenta- 
tion in  the  Temple,  she  received  again  her  child  from  the 
arms  of  Simeon.  Then,  (if  only  for  an  instant),  we  might 
well  believe  the  narrow  appropriating  love  of  the  mother 
would  vanish  in  the  presence  of  the  grand  prospect  before 
her  little  one,  and  she  would  feel  like  the  Mother  of  the 
Race, — a  new  Eve, — through  him  she  bore  in  her  arms  as 
she  presented  him  before  God  in  His  Temple.  One  is 
inclined  to  think  that  this  very  occasion  was  in  the  mind  of 
Raphael,  for,  at  the  corner  of  the  picture,  at  the  right  of 
the  spectator,  is  a  little  glimpse  of  a  building,  which  can  be 
hardly  any  other  than  the  temple.  Certainly  such  a  spiritual 
experience  is  depicted.  It  might  well  be  entitled, — The 
Presentation  at  the  Temple,  as  seen  from  its  spiritual  side. 
It  is  as  if  to  Mary  a  sudden  revelation  had  been  made  of  the 
awful  significance  of  her  situation,  transforming  her  passivity 
into  an  act,  so  that  she  who  before  had  thought  that  some- 
thing wondrous  had  happened  to  her,  began  to  do  a  won- 
drous deed.  Notice  the  position  of  the  Madonna  is  not 
one  of  calm  repose,  she  is  not  standing  quietly  on  a  cloud  as 
if  to  receive  worship.  She  is  stepping  rapidly  forward.  And 
this  not  with  stateliness  and  majesty.  There  is  no  "incedit 
regina"  about  her  manner.  So  desirous  is  Raphael  of  mak- 
ing this  clear,  that  he  has  given  a  certain  briskness  and  hurry 
to  her  movement, — her  left  foot  is  lifted  and  the  corner  of 
her  robe  brushed  aside  by  the  air,  her  scarf  is  also  puffed  out 
and  blown  backward.  There  is  nothing  here  of  the  self- 
consciousness  of  a  fine  lady,  so  often  seen  in  Raphael's  Ma- 


28  ©electeD  P0alms:  anO  aionojjtap&a; 

donnas.  She  is  forgetful  of  self;  she  is  on  service.  She  is 
the  simple,  handsome  maiden,  once  ready  to  endure  God's 
will,  now  with  her  active  powers  raised  to  their  highest, 
absorbed  in  her  great  work, — that  of  bringing  the  son  to 
whom  she  has  given  birth  into  the  very  presence  of  the 
Eternal  Glory — to  the  right  hand  of  God.  Behind  her  is 
the  spiritual  effulgence  of  which  her  act  is  but  a  manifestation. 
Above  and  around  in  the  background  are  multitudes  of 
cherubic  faces  with  no  sign  of  homage,  but  present  to  signify 
that  that  which  had  been  brought  to  pass  was  the  outcome  of 
all  the  life  and  energy  of  the  Unseen  World,  and  bending  as 
those  who,  (we  are  told),  desire  to  look  into  this  thing.  For 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about  this  picture  js  the 
total  absence  of  Mariolatry.  There  is  nothing  pictured 
or  suggested  that  tends  to  mar  his  honor  whose  name  is  above 
every  name.  At  first  sight  this  does  not  seem  to  be  the  case. 
But  if  more  closely  examined,  the  figures  of  St.  Sixtus  and 
Santa  Barbara  are  seen  not  to  be  in  attitudes  of  worship. 
The  centre  of  interest  to  them,  as  well  as  to  Mary,  is  some- 
thing unpainted  towards  which  Mary  is  rapidly  moving. 
This  is  plainly  indicated  by  the  attitude  of  Santa  Barbara, 
which,  though  full  of  respect,  is  so  far  from  worship  that  she 
turns  her  face  away,  casting  down  her  eyes  at  the  same  time, 
as  if  in  the  presence  of  something  greater  than  Mary.  The 
expression  upon  the  face  of  Sixtus  is  simply  one  of  ominous, 
wondering  scrutiny,  utterly  averse  from  adoration;  while  at 
the  same  time  he  is  motioning  Mary  forward.  And  she  is 
indeed  stepping, — one  might  say,  hurrying  forward, — 
towards  what  seems  plainly  shown  by  the  upturned  faces  of 
the  cherubs  at  the  bottom  of  the  picture,  who  are  leaning 
upon  what  appears  to  be  a  threshold,  down  to  which  the 
Saint  and  Pope  has  abased  his  tiara,  and  who  are  gazing 
forward  and  upward  with  such  rapt  and  glowing  counten- 
ances that  we  almost  see  in  them  as  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of 
Him  who  sitteth  on  the  throne  of  the  Heavens,  at  whose 
portal  they  are.     This  is  made  still  more  clear  by  the  expres- 


i&eto*  jFreDerick  La  Eue  Mm       29 

sion  and  attitude  of  the  child,  who  seems  to  be  startled  at  the 
scene  towards  which  he  is  being  borne,  and  filled  with  dread 
at  what  lies  before  him.  The  eyes  are  large,  liquid  and 
lustrous,  yet  with  a  certain  wildness  in  them.  It  may  possibly 
be  that  Raphael  here,  as  elsewhere,  has  attempted  to  repre- 
sent the  Divine  in  the  Christ-Child  by  giving  the  expression 
an  elfish,  puckish  character.  But  it  harmonizes  wonderfully 
well  with  his  attitude,  which  is  that  of  one  shrinking  back  a 
little.  He  clings  to  the  arm  of  his  mother  with  such  force 
that  the  muscles  rise  on  the  upper  part  of  his  arm.  Whatever 
there  may  be  in  the  elfish  conventionality  that  sometimes 
marks  Raphael's  style,  there  is,  nevertheless,  dread  in  those 
eyes.  And  why  should  there  not  be?  He  who  walked  this 
earth,  God  as  well  as  man,  was  man  as  well  as  God,  and 
felt  dread  more  than  once  at  the  prospect  of  the  trials  await- 
ing him,  long  before  that  transcendent  hour  of  awe  and 
anguish  in  the  Garden.  Why  should  not  He,  whom  to 
conceive  at  all  we  must  conceive  as  one  who,  as  far  as  what 
we  call  knowledge  goes,  knew  nothing,  but  whose  insight 
and  intuition  were  infinite?  Why  should  not  He  be  con- 
ceived as  startled,  seeing  before  him  that  glory  ineffable, 
which  he  is  to  enter  and  become  part  of,  with  perhaps  a 
consciousness  of  all  that  lay  between, — the  great  battle  and 
the  great  victory.  He  is  looking  at  it  with  human  eyes, 
meeting  it  with  a  human  heart,  and  the  Divinity  there  only 
enables  the  human  to  feel  all  the  more  deeply. 

The  graver  and  the  pencil  have  hitherto  toiled  in  vain 
to  reproduce  the  expression  of  Mary's  face  which  Raphael 
has  made  our  possession  forever.  Only  lately  has  the  photo- 
graph succeeded  in  giving  a  distant  likeness  of  what  the 
copyist  make,  either  a  stony  emptiness  or  a  dreamy  vacancy 
of  revery,  eulogized  by  some  as  a  divine  calm,  etc.  I  see 
nothing  divine  about  it.  To  me  it  is  the  most  human  of 
human  things.  The  expression  of  Mary's  face,  which  seems 
to  baffle  copyists,  is  a  perfect  expression  of  her  Magnificat  at 
the  house  of  Elizabeth.  There  is  nothing  strange  or  unearth- 
ly about  it.     It  it  possible  to  catch  just  such  an  expression  of 


30  ^electeD  psalms  ana  sponogtap&g 

an  ordinary,  person  in  ordinary  circumstances.  I  imagine  such 
an  one  who  from  a  very  lowly  condition,  which  she  has 
accepted  without  a  thought  of  repining,  is  suddenly  lifted 
up  to  the  loftiest  dignity,  and  keeping  still  her  lowliness  of 
heart, — making  no  more  claim  for  anything  as  of  right  hers 
than  when  she  was  without  a  thought  beyond  her  lowly  lot. 
Now,  imagine  that  this  lofty  position  is  one  of  loftiest  ser- 
vice,— a  service  for  all  times  and  all  peoples,  which  the  latest 
ages  will  appreciate  more  fully  than  the  present, — a  service 
so  closely  connected  with  her  person  that  she  will  never  be 
forgotten,  a  toilless,  delightful  service;  for  the  straight  gate  of 
anxiety  and  dread  having  been  passed,  she  finds  herself  veiled 
from  all  shame  by  honorable  marriage,  and  the  submission  of 
a  handmaid  changed  into  a  mother's  kindling  joy.  All  this 
cannot,  of  course,  be  read  in  her  countenance,  but  was  most 
certainly  in  her  heart,  and  is  necessary  to  be  remembered  in 
judging  of  her  expression. 

Her  position  and  office  is  very  high, — it  is  no  less  than 
what  it  is  represented  by  Raphael, — she  is  bringing  the  son 
to  whom  she  has  given  birth  to  the  right  hand  of  God.  And 
yet  she  appears  manifestly  thinking  herself  nothing.  Hers  is 
human  nature,  but  human  nature  at  its  acme,  at  once  lofty 
and  lowly,  supremely  active  and  utterly  dependent.  It  is 
pictured  faith.  The  gentle  being  whom  Raphael  depicts  is 
doing  that  which  she  feels  she  is  not  worthy  to  do, 
which  it  is  not  possible  for  her  to  do,  the  height  indeed  of 
whose  significance  she  but  dimly  comprehends.  Yet  forward 
she  steps  out  upon  the  void,  her  trusting  feet  laying  the 
ponderous  beams  that  support  her  over  the  abyss  as  she 
approaches  the  Eternal  throne.  Unabashed,  unbold,  or  with 
the  boldness  that  says,  "when  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong," 
she  advances  bearing  the  ground  of  her  confidence  in  her 
arms.  That  which  she  supports,  supports  her,  that  which 
she  brings,  brings  her.  She  is  at  peace,  in  repose,  on  the 
peak  of  things. 

Lofty,  Lowly,  Mighty  one,  I  bow  no  knee  to  thee,  for 
such  as  thou  art  is  ever  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit. 


Keto,  iFre&erick  Ha  Eue  &tng       31 


Uptttg  &toafce  all  JttgJjt 

i 

Thou  has  cooled  my  chamber  well, 

And  about  my  tired  eye 
Wove  thy  wonder-working  spell; 

Made  the  world  invisible, 
Stooping  softly  from  on  high. 

2 
Thou  wouldst  soothe  the  listening  ear; 

Thou  wouldst  lull  to  slumbers  light, — 
With  the  wind's  soft  whisper  near, 
With  the  sounds  of  waters  clear, 
Lovely,  gentle,  tender  Night. 

3 
Vain !    Thou  canst  not  give  relief 

To  my  tired  and  aching  head; 
To  my  thoughts  that  will  not  cease. 

Even  thou  canst  not  say  peace, 
Nurse-like  hovering  round  my  bed. 

4 
Grand  is  every  morning  sun, 

Life  and  light,  I  know  they  bless; 
Yet  I  would  when  day  is  done, 

And  the  weary  goal  is  won. 
Taste  the  sweets  of  nothingness. 

5 

Blissful  draught!  Ah,  now  I  know 
Sweet  t'will  be  to  close  life's  stage. 

Who  would  be  amidst  this  throe, 
Midst  this  trampling  to  and  fro, — 

Broad  awake  from  age  to  age. 


32  Selected  psalms  attD  Qionograpbs 

6 

When  the  long  dark  night  is  near, 

To  the  end  life's  day  has  worn, — 
Lying  down  without  a  fear; 

On  my  couch  with  happy  cheer, 
I  shall  slumber  'till  the  mom. 


Ret).  JfreOerich  JLa  Rue  King       33 


bonnet 


Under  the  shadow  of  great  thoughts  I  lie. 

Vast  arms  lift  up  around  a  shield  of  green, 

Blunted  are  noontide's  golden  arrows  keen, 
The  waste  glares  far  and  wide  against  the  sky. 
But  here  around  me  not  a  thing  may  die. 

Here  is  cool  grass,  and  shyest  flowers  are  seen. 

Yet  life's  fair  fortress  hath  not  always  been. 
This  mighty  trunk  and  these  huge  beams  on  high 
Were  tender  shoots  once  struggling  hard  for  life 

Ages  on  ages.  Hark!  me  thinks  the  breeze 
That  surges  through  with  long  past  sounds  is  rife, 

Tocsins  and  tramplings,  anthems,  litanies. 
The  forum's  murmur,  shock  of  deadly  strife, 

All  the  long  travail  that  hath  wrought  our  peace. 


34  Selected  psalms  anD  S^ottosrapbi 

One  of  his  early  efforts  in  literature  was  the  foflowmj 
translation  of  Thoma5  Celano's  hymn  from  the  latin : 


Bits  3rae. 


Day  of  wrath  that  awful  day 
Shall  the  world  in  ashes  lay, 
So  all  ancient  prophets  say. 

II 

WTiat  a  trembling  will  there  be, 
\%~hen  the  Judge  on  earth  they  *ee 
Making  strictest  scrutiny. 

ill 

Trumpet  sending  dreadful  sound 
Through  the  regions  underground 
Summons  all  the  throne  around. 

IV 

Death  and  Nature  stand  in  dread. 
"v\Tien  arise  the  millions  dead 
At  the  Judge's  bar  to  plead. 


In  the  record  shall  be  sought 
Every  deed  and  word  and  thought, 
.And  a  world  to  Judgement  brought. 

^"hen  the  Judge  sits  shall  be  see* 
All  the  hidden  deeds  of  men, 
Naught  shall  go  unpunished  thea. 


Eeto*  ,fre&erick  La  Uue  fting      35 


VII 


What  shall  wretched  I  then  say? 
Whom  secure  to  aid  my  plea, 
When  the  Just  scarce  saved  be? 


VIII 


Judge   of  Judgment  just  the  fount, 
O,  remit  the  great  amount, 
Ere  the  day  of  strict  account. 


IX 


Think  Lord  'twas  for  me  astray 
Thou  didst  tread  life's  weary  way, 
Let  me  not  be  lost  that  dav. 


Sitting  tired  Thou  still  hast  sought, 
On  the  Cross  my  pardon  bought, 
Shall  such  labor  be  for  naught? 

XI 

Thou  who  Mary  hast  forgiven, 
To  the  robber  openest  Heaven, 
Hope  to  even  me  hast  given. 

XII 

Though  I  pray  unworthily 
Set,  I  pray  Thee  graciously. 
Me  from  fires  eternal  free. 

XIII 

With  the  sheep  a  place  I  pray, 
Keep  me  from  the  goats  away, 
At  Thine  own  right  hand  to  stay. 


36   Selected  Psalms  anO  QionograpJjs; 

XIV 

I  accept  the  sinners  place 

Guilty  shame  o'erspreads  my  face, 

Give  Lord  to  the  suppliant  grace. 

XV 

When  the  curs'd  their  shame  confessing 
Eager  flames  are  sore  distressing, 
Call  to  me  then  with  a  blessing. 

XVI 

Oh!  that  day  of  sad  surprise 
When  from  ashes  shall  arise 
Guilty  man  to  Judgment  come! 
Keep  me  from  the  dreadful  doom. 

Mr.  King,  in  view  of  the  reckless  indifference  of  the 
impenitent  and  ignorant,  adds  substantially  these  words,  "In 
our  days  too  little  notice  is  taken  of  the  solemn  warnings  of 
the  wrath  to  come,"  given  to  the  sinner  in  the  Bible,  and  in 
the  "Dies  Irae." 


Eeto*  jFreDerick  JLa  Kue  i&fng       37 


$arapf)rage  of  $*alm  19. 

i 

In  all  the  splendours  of  the  skies 

His  glory  is  displayed. 
Who  lifted  up  the  firmament, 

Who  suns  and  stars  hath  made. 

2 
Day  unto  each  succeeding  day 

And  night  to  night  the  same. 
In  never  ending  praise  repeat 

The  wonders  of  His  name. 

3 
No  speech  is  heard  nor  any  voice, 

But  they  to  every  eye 
In  mighty  visions  spread  above 
Unfold  their  prophecy. 

4 
Earth's  farthest  bound  and  every  clime. 

They  for  their  mission  claim, 
In  every  land  the  rolling  heavens 

Good  news  from  God  proclaim. 

5 
In  them  at  dawn  are  set  the  fair 

Blue  Curtains  of  the  sun, 
A  bridegroom  bright,  an  athlete  strong. 

Who  joys  his  course  to  run. 

6 

From  farthest  East  to  farthest  West 

He  decks  the  earth  with  flowers, 
He  plants  the  trees.  He  wafts  the  clouds. 

And  waters  all  with  showers. 


IReto*  jFteDerick  &a  Rue  fting       30 

13 

Thy  judgments  true  and  righteous  are, 

Naught  hidden  from  Thine  eye, 
The  nations  scourged.  Thy  saints  chastised, 

Can  make  Thee  no  reply. 

14 

More  precious  they  than  finest  gold. 

And  more  than  honey  sweet; 
For  they  deliver  and  enrich, 

And  make  for  glory  meet. 

15 

Thy  servant  also  warning  takes — 

He  trembles  and  is  still, 
And  blessed  they  who  give  them  heed 

And  in  them  seek  Thy  will. 

16 

Who  knows  his  errors?     Cleanse  Thou  me 

From  secret  faults  within, 
And  hold  me  back  by  Thy  right  arm 

From  all  presumptuous  sin. 

17 

Then  from  guilt's  burden  I'll  be  free. 
Restrained  and  cleansed  with  blood, 

And  looking  on  Thy  handiwork 
Again  Thou'lt  say,  "  'tis  good." 


My  words  and  thoughts  shall  in  Thy  sight 

Be  fairer  than  the  skies, 
And  Thy  Creation  New  begin 

In  ruined  me  to  rise. 


40  ^electets  psalms  anD  ^onograpjjs 


&  letter. 


IMPRECATORY    PSALMS— HOW    TO 
JUSTIFY  THEM 

Part  of  the  difficulty  that  assails  the  Bible  reader,  (in 
the  imprecatory  Psalms),  it  seems  to  me,  would  be  removed 
if  we  would  realize  that  the  Psalms  are  poetry,  and  not 
prose.  The  power  of  poetry  is  in  the  details  that  make  a 
picture  for  the  mind.  Now  a  simple  curse  might  not  seem 
so  bad,  while  a  detailed  curse  would  appear  horrible;  and 
yet  there  might  not  be  any  moral  difference  between.  Take 
what  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  instance  in  the  Psalms:  the 
verse  about  dashing  infants  against  the  stones,  in  Psalm  1  37. 
It  has  been  held  up  as  something  diabolical,  when  it  is  nothing 
of  the  sort.  When  Alexandria  was  bombarded,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  issued  a  prayer  to  be  used  for  the 
success  of  the  British  arms.  No  one  that  I  know  of  made 
the  least  objection.  Now  you  know  what  a  bombardment 
is.  It  is  sending  shells  into  the  works  of  the  enemy.  These 
shells  are  great  pointed  cylinders  of  iron  three  feet  high  or 
more.  They  are  loaded  with  powder,  so  when  they  burst 
they  rend  everything  around  them  to  pieces.  Now  consider 
what  that  prayer  for  the  success  of  the  British  arms  really 
was.  It  desired  that  these  shells  might  be  sent  where  not 
only  walls  but  their  defenders  would  be  torn  in  pieces. 
Everybody  knows  this,  and  yet  nobody  objected.  But  if 
the  Archbishop  had  gone  into  detail,  had  asked  that  the 
shells  might  reach  masses  of  men,  that  their  limbs  and  their 
blood  might  be  flung  through  the  air,  what  an  outburst  of 
horror  there  would  have  been!  And  yet,  is  it  goodness  and 
kindness  that  revolts  from  such  a  prayer?  No,  it  is  only  good 
taste  and  fine  sensibility.  Now  we  would  make  no  objection 
if  the  Psalmist  had  said:  "Daughter  of  Babylon,  blessed  be 


Eeto.  ^Frederick  La  l&ue  Eing       41 

he  who  shall  destroy  thee."  But  because  the  Psalmist  lived  at 
a  time  when  every  one's  taste  was  coarse  and  their  sensibili- 
ties blunt,  and  in  order  to  make  a  vivid  picture  gave  a  detail 
which  was  almost  invariable  in  the  taking  of  cities,  we  are 
horrified — not  wisely,  I  think. 

I  got  light  some  years  ago  upon  this  subject.  There 
was  a  "Ring"  that  dominated  New  York,  and  corruption  and 
plunder  and  iniquity  were  on  the  throne.  Then  I  learned  that 
cursing  might  be  consistent  with  love,  and  understood  some 
of  the  curses  of  the  imprecatory  psalms.  Indeed,  LOVE  is 
the  most  terrible  thing  in  the  world,  as  will  yet  be  seen.  Be 
sure  of  one  thing:  we  wrestle  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  nor 
are  the  curses  of  the  Psalms  directed  against  flesh  and  blood, 
but  against  "principalities  and  powers  and  the  realm  of  the 
darkness  of  this  world." 


42  Selected  psalms  anD  QDonograp&s 


8  letter. 


TRUSTING  WHERE  WE  CANNOT  SEE 

"Dear 

"It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  attempt  to  clear  up  that  matter 
which  you  called  to  my  attention  in  your  last  letter.  As  I 
understand  it,  this  seems  to  be  your  difficulty.  You  are 
anxious  about  something, — say  the  health  of  your  brother. 
You  pray  that  his  health  may  improve.  There  is  an  improve- 
ment. You  say  to  yourself,  God  has  answered  my  prayer, 
He  will  restore  my  brother  to  health  again.  You  pour  out 
the  treasures  of  your  gratitude  to  your  Heavenly  Father.  You 
thank  Him  for  what  He  has  done,  and  for  what  you  can 
expect  Him  to  do.  Hope  fills  your  heart,  and  praise;  the 
future  looks  bright.  And  now  there  is  a  change ;  your  brother 
falls  back  into  his  old  state.  The  improvement  was  not  a 
permanent  improvement.  It  was  not  what  you  thought  it. 
It  was  not  what  you  thanked  God  for.  You  are  not  only 
disappointed,  but  the  flow  of  grateful  feeling  is  checked,  it  has 
no  object  upon  which  to  expend  itself.  You  are  like  a  person 
who  sees  what  appears  to  be  a  beautiful  garden  before  him. 
He  steps  forward  eagerly  to  find  it  is  only  a  picture  painted 
on  a  wall. 

You  are  tempted  to  say,  "How  can  I  know  but  I  have 
often  thanked  God  for  what  had  as  little  reality  as  this? 
Perhaps  you  will  ask  yourself,  "How  can  I  ever  thank  God 
heartily,  after  this,  since  I  am  just  as  likely  to  be  mistaken  as 
I  am  now?" 

It  would  be  very  unfortunate  for  such  a  feeling  to  be- 
come the  settled  tendency  of  the  soul,  for  thanksgiving  and 
praise  are  not  only  delightful  to  man  and  pleasing  to  God,  but 
also  one  of  the  best  ways  by  which  we  can  serve  God :  since 
we  thus  bear  witness  to  His  existence  and  providence  and 


44  Selected  psalms  ana  anemographs 

hand."  God's  mercy  and  love  never  sleep.  He  is  always 
about  some  good  for  us.  Well  may  we  cry  with  the  Psalm- 
ist, "How  precious  also  are  Thy  thoughts  unto  me.  O  God! 
How  great  is  the  sum  of  them!  If  I  should  count  them  they 
are  more  in  number  than  the  sand."     Ps.  139:  17,  18. 

And  these  thoughts,  precious  as  they  are,  as  being  the 
expression  of  a  Father's  watchful  love,  are  more  precious  be- 
cause they  are  an  organized  whole,  parts  of  a  far-reaching 
plan  to  secure  His  glory  and  (which  is  the  same  thing)  our 
highest  good.  Not  in  this  world  or  with  human  wisdom 
can  we  understand  that  plan.  For  as  the  Psalmist  says, — 
"How  great  are  Thy  works,  O  Lord,  and  Thy  thoughts  are 
very  deep,"  Ps.  92:5.  And  yet,  those  who  do  not  know, 
who  are  anxious,  worried  or  in  doubt,  are  considered  blame- 
worthy and  contemptible  by  the  Psalmist,  for  he  goes  on  to 
say, — "A  brutish  man  knoweth  not,  neither  does  a  fool 
understand  this,"  v.  6th, — that  is,  understand  that  what 
is  so  trying  in  appearance  is  really  for  the  best,  and  should 
awaken  very  different  feelings.  And  for  this  he  is  visited 
with  contemptuous  reprobation.  Not  because  he  failed  to 
discover  that  this  apparent  evil  was  a  real  good,  since  it  must 
have  been  beyond  the  ken  of  man, — but  because,  knowing 
that  all  things  and  events  were  in  the  hands  of  God,  and 
knowing  His  covenant  relation  to  His  people,  and  His  many 
promises,  he  would  not  trust  Him,  but  showed  that  he  doubt- 
ed His  faithfulness,  by  the  disturbance  of  his  peace  when 
trouble  came.  He  was  blameworthy — because  he  lacked 
faith — faith,  and  not  insight  is  the  source  of  the  Christian's 
joy  and  praise. 

And  now  we  get  near  the  solution  of  this  whole  matter. 
We  are  called  upon  to  thank  and  praise  God,  not  some 
times,  when  we  have  received  some  notable  proof  of  His 
goodness,  but  "at  all  times," — "I  will  bless  the  Lord  at  all 
times.  His  praise  shall  be  continually  in  my  mouth." 
Ps.  34:1.  It  is  not  merely  in  good  times.  Not  merely  when 
corn  and  wine  increase,  but  when  there  is  neither  corn  nor 


Heu*  jFreOertck  La  I&ue  &ing;      45 

wine,  and  famine  threatens,  then  when  God's  people  have 
only  Him  they  find  that  He  is  better  than  all.  This  was  the 
experience  of  Habakkuk,  when  he  said, — "For  though  the 
fig-tree  shall  not  blossom,  neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines ;  the 
labour  of  the  olive  shall  fail,  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no 
meat;  the  flock  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold  and  there  shall 
be  no  herd  in  the  stalls;  yet  will  I  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will 
joy  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation." 
(Hab.  3:1  7,  18.)  It  is  of  course  very  delightful  when  the 
earth  is  full  of  the  evidences  of  God's  goodness,  when  grain 
covers  the  fields  and  fruit  the  boughs.  But  these  good  things 
have  their  evil  in  them,  they  tend  to  turn  our  thoughts  from 
the  Giver  to  the  gift;  and  that  is  a  great  loss,  for  God  is 
greater  and  better  than  all  He  gives. 

"Better  is  the  root 

Than  the  shoot, 

Better  is  the  tree 

Than  its  fruit, 

Better  is  the  hand 

Than  all  the  hand  can  hold, 

Better  far  is  faith  than  blessings  manifold." 

And  sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  take  away  the  gift 
that  we  may  have  the  Giver.  It  was  because  the  face  of 
Nature  was  blasted  that  Habakkuk  turned  more  intensely  to 
God,  and  found  that  it  was  true,  that  "Man  shall  not  live 
by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God." 

I  was  once  in  a  boat  on  the  glassy  surface  of  a  lake. 
The  water  was  such  a  perfect  mirror  that  I  had  but  to  look 
down,  to  see  the  sky  and  all  that  was  there.  Just  so  at 
favored  times  even  our  lives,  usually  so  chequered,  seem  to 
show  forth  only  God's  kindness  and  love.  We  know  well 
how  soon  and  sadly  this  scene  may  shift.  Quickly  as  a 
breeze  may  steal  over  the  surface  of  a  lake,  turning  its  glassy 
surface  into  ripples  and  obliterating  the  beautiful  visions  of 


46   Selected  Psalms  anD  Q^onogtapfjs 


the  sky,  so  quickly  can  a  change  come  into  the  happiest  life, 
and  fill  it  with  darkness  and  sorrow.  But  there  is  a  remedy. 
When  the  surface  of  the  water  fails  to  give  us  the  image  of 
the  sky,  we  have  only  to  look  up  to  see  the  sky  itself:  and 
no  matter  how  hopeless  and  terrible  the  circumstances  in 
which  the  Christian  is  placed,  he  can  have  perfect  peace  by 
looking  away  to,  and  trusting  implicitly  in,  the  Almighty  One 
who  is  at  the  same  time  all  wise  and  all  loving.  Well  is  that 
peace  called  in  Phil.  4:6,  an  incomprehensible  peace.  It  is 
measureless  and  fathomless  as  God  is.  " 


Ret).  jFreOericlt  JLa  Rue  Kine       47 

Christian  detente  anb  tte 
^fallacies;. 

What  a   careful  Study  of   Mrs.   Eddy's  Cult  Leads  One 
to  Accept  and  Reject 

The  whole  world  is,  I  believe,  ready  and  eager  to  hear 
and  tell  some  "new  thing."  And  yet  complete  redemption 
was  granted  1 ,800  years  ago.  We  need  no  "new  thing," 
but  only  that  the  old  should  be  fully  developed.  I  cannot 
lay  claim  to  much  knowledge  of  Christian  Science.  I  attend- 
ed one  of  their  services  and  read  some  of  their  tracts,  some- 
thing of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  and  more  in  a  later  book  of  hers, 
which  proposed  to  make  things  more  clear.  Alas!  I  left  off 
more  ignorant  than  I  was  before. 

I  have  talked  with  some  of  the  adherents,  but  without 
much  satisfaction.  Indeed  I  found  them  sometimes  more 
ignorant  of  their  own  tenets  than  I  was  myself.  For  instance, 
I  was  talking  with  a  young  man,  a  sort  of  connection  of  mine, 
who  claimed  to  have  been  perfectly  cured  of  asthma  by 
"Christian  Science."  I  know  enough  about  asthma  to  know 
what  that  meant.  I  have  been  cured  many  times  in  that  way 
myself.  I  saw,  too,  in  a  moment,  by  the  account  he  gave  of 
his  diet,  feeling  now  that  he  could  eat  anything  at  any  time 
and  in  any  quantity,  that  the  asthma  would  soon  be  back 
and  worse  than  before.  I  tried  to  remonstrate  with  him,  but 
no!  he  had  been  delivered  from  the  asthma  utterly  and  for- 
ever, and  could  indulge  himself  as  he  pleased.  I  then  asked 
him  to  what  he  attributed  his  cure.  He  said  "to  faith  in 
God."  "Then,"  I  said,  "you  have  not  been  cured  by 
Christian  Science,  for  that  does  not  admit  any  faith  in  God. 
They  place  dependence  upon  God,  but  it  is  the  same  kind  of 


48  Selected  psalms  and  e@onogtap|)s 

dependence  that  we  place  upon  the  attraction  of  gravita- 
tion. I  am  perfectly  certain  about  that  natural  law  and  so 
the  Christian  Scientists  are  logically  certain  as  to  the  action  of 
God.  They  hold  that  the  existence  of  disease  is  logically 
absurd  if  there  is  on  the  throne  of  the  Universe  a  God  of 
infinite  power  and  goodness.  Disease  is  therefore  simply  an 
illusion.  You  impose  upon  yourself  when  you  think  that 
you  have  asthma.  It  cannot  be  because  God  reigns.  All  you 
have  to  do  is  to  cease  imposing  upon  yourself,  to  cast  away 
your  delusion,  to  say  to  yourself  this  is  God's  world  and  not 
the  Devil's,  and  you  will  at  once  be  well.  There  is  no  need 
of  faith,  the  only  thing  is  to  recognize  the  fact.  The  fact  is 
health,  disease  is  the  lie,  and  we  have  to  give  it  the  lie  to  be 
delivered  from  it.  We  premise  that  God  is  on  the  throne  of  the 
Universe,  and  that  He  is  a  God  of  infinite  power  and  good- 
ness, therefore  there  can  be  no  such  evil  thing  as  disease. 
I  grant  the  plausibility  of  the  conclusion,  but,  unfortunately 
the  facts  are  against  it.  If  I  take  hot  porridge  into  my  mouth, 
I  will  be  burned  even  if  God  is  on  the  throne,  and  yet  to  be 
burned  is  an  evii." 

This  I  said  to  my  young  friend,  upon  whom  I  fear  I 
did  not  make  much  impression.  He  left  me,  determined,  I 
think,  to  eat  hot  beefsteaks  and  Welsh  rarebit  at  10  o'clock 
at  night,  assured  that  no  harm  could  come  of  it  because  this 
is  God's  world  and  not  the  Devil's.  This  will  give  you  an 
idea  of  what  my  view  on  the  matter  is,  but  I  will  say  some- 
thing further. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  logic  upon  which  all 
this  Christian  Science  depends.  I  must  own  it  is  plausible. 
If  God  is  a  God  of  infinite  goodness  as  well  as  power,  there 
can  be  neither  disease  or  sin.  Certainly  the  conclusion  seems 
at  first  sight  to  f  jllow  inevitably  from  the  premises.  But  there 
is  a  flaw.  Let  us  take  the  matter  of  sin,  and  let  us  put  aside 
the  consideration  that  if  there  is  no  sin  that  our  Saviour's  mis- 
sion to  the  earth  was  unnecessary,  His  teachings  untrue  and 
His  passion  bootless;  that  the  denial  of  sin  is  the  denial  of  a 


Reti.  ^Frederick  La  IRue  i&ing       49 

Christianity,  which  is  nothing  but  a  mode  of  deliverance  from 
sin  and  its  consequences.  No,  let  us  look  simply  at  the  un- 
doubted facts  of  the  case.  What  is  more  manifest  to  our 
consciousness  than  that  we  ourselves  have  done  wrong,  and 
what  is  more  obtrusive  upon  our  notice  than  the  wrong  doing 
of  others?  There  is  the  fact,  and  all  the  logic  of  the  world 
cannot  argue  it  away,  and  there  is  a  good  reason  why  sin 
should  be  in  this  world.  God  is  infinitely  good  and  mighty, 
and  there  could  be  no  more  perfect  manifestation  of  His  good- 
ness and  almighty  power  than  the  creation  of  a  free  human 
being.  Only  a  free  being  can  be  good  or  happy.  But  to  be 
free  implies  the  power  to  sin.  This  being — man,  whom  God 
has  made,  is  not  an  automatom;  if  he  were,  God  could  not 
accuse  or  threaten  him  as  He  does  everywhere  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, nor  could  we  accuse  and  threaten  our  fellow  men  as  we 
do  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life.  All  the  nobility  of  his  posi- 
tion and  the  grandeur  of  his  character  would  at  once  be 
destroyed,  if  he  could  not  be  thus  accused  and  threat- 
ened. 

Of  course  the  ultimate  persistence  of  sin  is  incompatible 
with  the  rule  of  an  infinitely  good  and  powerful  God,  and  so 
the  Scriptures  reveal  that,  in  the  end,  sin  and  the  sinner  will 
be  utterly  destroyed.  God  does  not  justify  His  ways  to  all 
men  at  every  point  of  time.  In  the  long  course  of  His  deal- 
ings with  humanity  there  are  many  things  that  give  occasion 
to  undutiful  questioning  and  complaining.  It  is  only  at  the 
end  of  all  things  that  His  justification  will  be  written  in  light 
on  the  skies.  And  meanwhile  those  that  are  wise  and  love 
Him  can  see  and  gladly  own  that  the  possibility  of  a  man's 
goodness  and  happiness  is  bound  up  with  his  possibility  to 
sin.  So  that  we  may  boldly  say  that,  practically,  without 
sin  there  would  be  no  holiness  or  happiness,  since  there  would 
be  no  freedom.  The  conclusion  then  that  we  would  draw 
from  the  isfinitude  of  God's  power  and  goodness  would  be 
just  the  opposite  of  that  drawn  by  the  Christian  Scientists. 
We  should  conclude  that  in  making  man  He  would  not  make 


50  Selected  psalms  anD  a^onograpijB 

him  an  automaton  without  power  to  be  holy  or  happy,  but 
with  all  the  possibilities  of  sinning  that  are  in  freedom. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  assertion  of  Christian  Science 
that  there  is  no  disease.     As  to  that  we  might  argue,  and 
could  not  be  gainsaid,  that  if  a  man  can  oppose  himself  to 
God's  moral  order  and  become  part  of  the  moral  chaos,  he 
can  oppose  himself  to  God's  physical  order  and  become  part 
of  the  physical  chaos,  of  which  disease  is  a  representative  in 
this  life;  but  we  can  afford  to  waive  this  evidence  since,  logic 
or  no  logic,  disease  is  a  fact.     Certainly,  if  we  accept  the  evi- 
dence of  our  senses,   we  must  believe  in  the  existence  of 
disease.     We  feel  acute  pains,  we  lose  our  strength,  we  have 
various  forms  of  distress  in  various  parts  of  the  body,  the 
functions  of  the  body  are  badly  performed,  or  not  at  all,  we 
become  blind,  deaf,  the  sense  of  feeling  leaves  us,  we  be- 
come unable  to  move  our  limbs.     Now,  this  is  said  to  be  al! 
delusion.     We  are  persuaded  that  it  is  so,  and  we  are  affect- 
ed. We  may  be  persuaded  that  it  is  not  so,  and  then  we  are 
delivered.      But  infants  suffer  also,  and  how  can  they  be 
deluded,  how  can  they  have  prepossessions?     Animals  also 
suffer;  we  often  notice  this  in  our  domestic  animals.     How 
can  this  be  due  to  any  prepossessions  or  delusions.     Here,  for 
instance,  is  a  poor  little  canary  bird  in  the  house  with  me,  it 
can  suffer  from  asthma  like  a  human  being.     We  see  with 
what  difficulty  it  breathes,  we  can  notice  its  dolorus,  afflicted 
discouraged  condition.     I  fill  its  cage  with  the  smoke  that 
relieves  me,  and  the  effect  is  as  manifest  as  upon  myself.     The 
harsh  sound  of  its  breathing  ceases,  and  it  is  evidently  more 
at  ease;  an  air  of  alertness  comes  over  it,  it  begins  to  preen 
its  feathers,  then  to  chirp,  and     feebly     attempt     a     song. 
Whence  comes  this?      The  idea  of  delusion  or  illusion  is 
preposterous. 

Then  again  if  we  examine  the  bodies  of  those  who  have 
succumbed  under  their  sufferings  we  see  organs  overgrown 
or  wasted,  distorted  or  displaced,  ossified,  or  tissues  changed 
in  various  ways.     One  glance  at  the  interior  of  a  deceased 


ftetn  JfteDetick  £a  Eue  ding       51 

patient,  as  revealed  by  the  scalpel,  shows  to  one  who  knows 
how  a  healthy  organization  looks,  that  the  seat  of  disease  is 
not  in  the  notions  of  the  mind,  but  in  the  state  of  the  body. 
And  what  is  to  be  said  of  death  or  immediate  corruption? 
Is  that  an  illusion  or  delusion?  And  now  remember  that, 
of  all  our  knowledge,  that  conveyed  to  us  by  the  senses  is  the 
surest,  and  that  there  is  nothing  to  contradict  this  knowledge 
but  a  very  uncertain  logical  deduction. 

But  why  should  the  Christian  Scientists  limit  the  exer- 
cise of  their  logic  to  disease  and  sin  ?  There  are  other  forms 
of  evil  besides  disease  and  sin,  and  just  as  illogical  if  we 
believe  in  an  almighty  and  all  good  deity.  How  about  the 
rattlesnake  and  its  venom?  If  it  bites  you,  can  you  throw 
off  the  effect,  and  call  it  nothing?  There  also  are  poisonous 
plants;  shall  we  dare  their  effects?  The  lightning  strikes,  and 
there  are  its  dreaded  effects;  also  the  ravages  of  insects  (as 
locusts)  that  cause  famines.  Is  not  malaria  a  real  thing? 
Shall  we  defy  it  in  the  name  of  logic  and  settle  in  the  marshes, 
or  mount  to  the  heights  and  breathe  pure  air? 

The  practical  conclusion  of  common  sense  is  this:  there 
is  an  order  of  nature,  and  if  we  go  counter  to  that  order  it 
crushes  us.  They  who  live  in  accordance  with  nature  are,  as 
a  rule,  free  from  disease.  Many  of  the  painful  disorders  that 
we  are  subject  to  are  manifestly  for  the  purpose  of  guiding 
us  and  keeping  us  in  the  true  way  of  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  nature.  There  may  be  beneficence  in  disease.  Pain 
has  been  called  a  faithful  sentinel  of  the  body,  and  if  we  heed 
that  sentinel  we  shall  usually  go  on  our  way  unharmed.  We 
may  safely  say  that  all  ill  that  happens  to  us,  leaving  out  the 
direct  influence  of  the  evil  spiritual  world  arises  from  our 
going  counter  to  nature,  or  else  arises  from  the  wilderness  of 
nature  not  yet  subdued  to  order,  which  of  themselves  are 
counter  to  our  well  being  and  doubtless  are  used  by  evil  be- 
ings to  harm  us. 

If  we  should  use  the  logic  of  Christian  Scientists,  we 
should  say  that  any  world  created  by  an  infinitely  perfect, 


52  ^electeo  psalms  and  a^onogtapfxs 

powerful  and  beneficient  being  would  be  absolutely  perfect. 
But  this  is  not  the  case.  In  flat  contradiction  to  Scientist  logic 
the  earth  was  created  at  first  very  imperfect,  and  it  took  ages, 
perhaps  millions  of  years,  to  shape  it  to  be  a  proper  residence 
for  man.  And  so  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  earth  were  at 
first  but  crudimentary,  and  were  gradually  brought  to  what 
they  now  are.  In  this  world  that  He  has  created  and  finished 
God  works  yet  in  this  gradual  way.  Fruits  are  meant  for  our 
use ;  yet  they  are  not  at  first  made  in  such  a  form  that  we  can 
use  them.  An  apple  is  at  first  a  minute  organism  without 
any  flavor,  it  takes  months  for  it  to  be  perfected  and  suitable 
for  us.  How  would  it  do  for  a  father  to  say  to  his  children 
in  the  early  spring,  "God  has  given  us  the  apple.  It  is  a 
pleasant,  wholesome  fruit,  eat  therefore  freely,  this  is  God's 
world,  not  the  Devil's."  The  little  boys  would  readily  obey 
with  results.  When  the  doctor  was  called  to  their  wailing,  he 
would  not  ask,  "What  is  this  delusion  that  fills  your  mind?" 
but,  "What  have  you  been  eating?"  When  a  person  has 
taken  carbolic  acid,  there  is  need  of  a  stomach  pump,  not 
logic. 

But  why  should  the  Christian  Scientists  limit  them- 
selves at  all?  All  forms  of  evil  are  equally  consistent  with 
the  existence  of  an  all  wise,  all  powerful  and  all  loving  God. 
Evil  municipal  government  or  the  "Unspeakable  Turk" 
must  be  as  much  a  delusion  as  disease,  and  as  amenable  to 
"treatment."  What  a  way  to  settle  the  coal  strikes  and  labor 
troubles  generally! 

One  is  tempted  to  abandon  the  attempt  to  deal  with 
Christian  Science,  it  appears  so  nonsensical  and  irrational,  but 
tl  ere  are  considerations  that  give  one  pause.  It  is  a  power. 
And  the  very  fact  that  it  is  a  power,  that  such  multitudes 
are  swept  away  by  it,  and  that  it  has  such  a  wide  acceptance, 
claims  a  sober  investigation  at  our  hands.  All  great  move- 
ments are  respectable,  and  when  they  tend  to  disturb  the 
quietude  of  Conservatism,  Conservatism  should  not  ask  itself, 
"How  can  I   crush  it,"  but  first  of  all,   "Does  this  exist 


Retn  jFre&etick  JLa  Rue  fcing       53 

through  any  fault  of  mine?"  Oh,  if  the  church  of  the 
Ninth  Century,  when  Mohammedanism  arose,  had  only 
looked  at  home  and  recognized  in  its  dreaded  enemy  mainly 
an  anti-Christian  revolt  against  the  idolatry  of  Christians,  the 
rapacity  of  Christian  ministers  of  Justice,  the  aristocratic  or- 
ganizaton  of  Christian  society  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Chris- 
tian tax  gatherer!  Oh,  if  the  church  could  only  have  reformed 
itself !  But  no !  It  could  only  shriek  and  call  on  God  to  help 
it  conserve  by  the  sword,  without  the  aid  of  His  presence. 
This  doomed  Christian  society.  They  could  !  ut  fight  and  fall 
and  waste  away  until  the  Lord  himself  instituted  a  thorough 
going  reform  by  the  irruption  of  the  Northern  Barbarians 
and  the  introduction  of  new  blood. 

Now  one  of  the  most  striking  phenomena  exhibited  by 
society  at  the  present  time  is  the  multiplication  of  its  diseases 
and  their  remedies;  the  development  of  the  medical  faculty, 
and  then  the  utter  failure  to  heal.  There  is  the  prevention, 
indeed,  that  is  a  growing  success,  but  of  healing  there  is  hard- 
ly anything.  I  was  told  by  a  very  learned  and  skilful 
physician  that  in  spite  of  the  vast  accessions  of  knowledge 
doctors  could  not  cure  any  better  than  they  could  fifty  years 
ago.  Nay,  is  not  all  this  therapeutics  a  great  disease  of  itself? 
Has  it  not  induced  a  morbid  self-consciousness,  a  noticing  of 
symptoms,  and  a  running  to  remedies  for  immediate  relief, 
which  is  only  causing  the  evil  to  wax  towards  a  catastrophe? 
Remedies  can  no  more  make  health  than  you  can  make  a 
fruitful  tree  by  tying  fruit  to  its  branches.  Health  is  from 
within,  it  is  the  outcome  of  the  whole  man,  and  so  in  old 
English  "well"  is  "whole."  Only  when  there  is  truth  in  our 
inward  part  can  our  outward  part  be  a  manifestation  of  the 
Creator's  wisdom,  and  harmony  be  introduced  into  the 
human  frame. 

We  now  seek  "unto  physicians"  and  "not  unto  the 
Lord."  We  go  to  the  physicians  to  enable  us  to  live  apart 
from  the  Lord  in  the  indulgence  of  our  desires  and  appetites. 
If  the  Lord  was  made  dominant  in  our  lives  many  of  the 


54  Selected  psalms  and  6@onogtapt)* 

causes  of  disease  would  be  eliminated  at  once.  Our  bv«c 
would  be  simpler,  purer,  full  of  delightful  occupation,  love 
would  spring  up,  and  happiness  would  become  the  very  at- 
mosphere that  mankind  breathes.  Tell  me  not  that  society 
would  be  re-constituted  before  this  could  be.  Of  course  it 
would.  The  health  of  the  individual  depends  on  the  health 
of  society.  The  true  sanitarium  is  that  city  which  John  saw 
coming  down  out  of  Heaven  from  God,  having  the  Glory  of 
God.  There  we  will  not  imagine  that  the  exercise  of  faith 
implies  the  disuse  of  means,  for  the  use  of  means  will  be- 
come the  exercise  of  faith.  Now  all  this  sounds  vague,  and 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  work  out  the  details  of  this  view, 
but  is  it  not  evident  at  once  that  the  diseases  of  individuals 
are  largely  the  outcome  of  the  disease  of  society,  and  that 
only  when  the  whole  man  is  healed,  can  he  be  said  to  be 
really  whole,  and  the  whole  man  cannot  be  healed  till  society 
is  made  whole. 

What  is  the  use  of  the  skilful  physician,  by  his  treat- 
ment relieving  the  over-worn  nerves  of  a  man  of  business,  if 
he  must  return  to  his  exacting  employment,  immediately  to  be- 
gin destroying  himself  again  in  order  to  maintain  or  advance 
the  social  position  of  his  wife  and  children,  who  are  like- 
wise destroying  themselves  in  their  social  struggles  which 
yield  them  not  one  atom  of  joy?  If  society  were  only  rightly 
constituted,  and  that  may  not  be  except  through  a  whole  life 
in  every  individual,  then  there  would  be  no  strife,  no  fretting, 
no  anxiety,  no  waste,  no  excess,  no  want.  The  absence  of 
these  and  such  as  these  would  well-night  abolish  disease. 

The  lowering  of  the  death  rate  in  New  York  by  the 
simple  cleaning  of  the  streets  is  a  distant  foretaste  of  this; 
what  will  be  the  result  when  every  faculty  of  man  is  in  con- 
stant, perfect  and  happy  exercise!  This  is  the  true  way. 
There  lacks  not  a  false  way,  a  short  cut  to  health,  a  very 
short  cut.  Mankind  is  restless  in  the  throes  of  its  morbid 
introversions  and  speculations  upon  disease.  It  sees  the 
failure  of  physicians,  the  vanity  of  remedies,  and  craves  de- 


Keto*  ^Frederick  La  I&ue  filing       55 

liverance  from  all  this  coil  of  burden  and  misery.  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  boldly  pointed  out  the  way.  She  is  a  path  finder 
indeed!  She  found  that  the  more  minute  the  remedy  was, 
the  more  happy  the  result  on  the  patient,  so  she  tried  nothing, 
and  found  that  still  more  effective.  It  was  not  hard  after  that 
to  conclude  that  nothing  at  all  cured,  because  nothing  at 
all  was  the  matter ;  and  that  there  might  not  lack  philosophical 
confirmation  of  this  it  was  put  in  the  form  of  a  sylogism. 

An  all  good,  all  powerful  God  would  not  permit  the 
existence  of  disease  or  sin. 

"God  is  all  good  and  almighty. 
Wherefore  disease  and  sin  are  non-existent." 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  attractive  this  would  be  to  the 
multitude  who  find  it  possible  to  believe.  They  could  drop 
the  burden  of  taking  care  of  themselves,  drop  the  burden  of 
keeping  up  face  to  face  rapport  with  God,  drop  the  burden 
of  the  anxiety  and  doubt,  that  has  hitherto  accompanied 
their  effort  to  depend  on  his  free  will,  and  sink  down  in  utter 
dependence  upon  a  God  whose  action  is  as  certain  as  the 
attraction  of  gravitation — changeless,  uniform,  omnipresent. 
Not  the  living,  loving  God  whom  it  was  their  privilege  all 
along  to  trust.  No,  this  system  is  but  one  manifestation  of 
the  wide  revolt  against  Him  that  is  going  on  at  the  present 
day.  Much  of  the  proof  that  Christian  Scientists  claim  as 
perfectly  convincing  often  shows  only  that  nature  has  great 
creative  powers. 

I  have  a  woman  now  in  my  mind  who  was  a  confirmed 
valetudinarian.  Always  occupied  with  herself,  always  notic- 
ing her  symptoms,  always  taking  remedies,  she  was  always 
out  of  sorts  and  complaining.  She  adopted  Mrs.  Eddy's 
views,  threw  physic  to  the  dogs,  and  put  on  health  as  one 
would  put  on  a  coat.  Of  course,  the  result  was  perfectly 
natural,  and  any  wise  physician  could  have  foretold  it.  She 
has  besides  for  occupation  the  interest  of  a  new  movement  and 
the  study  of  what  she  can  call  a  "science."  That  is  all  that 
I  can  see  in  Christian  Science,  pure  and  genuine,  but  as  I 


56  Selected  psalms  and  sponopapljs 

sat  in  their  congregation  and  listened  to  their  readings  from 
Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  their  strange  transmogrification  of  Scrip- 
tine,  their  queer  hymns  and  strange  addresses  to  "Our  Father 
and  Mother  God"  I  could  not  help  thinking,  that  in  spite  of 
their  theories,  many  of  them  were  really  seeking  the  God  of 
Healing  when  the  Church  had  left  Him  for  physicians,  and  I 
could  not  but  hope  that  very  jealousy  would  rouse  the  Church 
to  seek  to  her  God  for  healing  and  health  as  she  never  has 
before. 

True,  the  Church  does  pray  for  healing  and  earnestly, 
too.  A  true  child  of  God  has  no  choice.  He  ought  to, 
he  must  pray  whenever  he  is  anxious  or  fears  or  strongly 
desires.  It  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  impulse  and  inclination.  It 
is  thus  he  serves  God.  It  is  thus  that  he  honors  Him  and 
proclaims  His  governance  of  the  world.  But  he  prays  (for 
so  he  is  taught)  as  a  child  to  a  father;  and  he  claims  that 
ministry  not  only  of  His  Father's  infinite  love  and  power,  but 
of  His  infinite  wisdom  as  well.  He  feels  that  he  is  little 
and  ignorant,  and  knows  not  what  is  best  for  himself,  nor 
whether  it  fits  in  well  with  God's  great  and  loving  plan  for 
the  world;  and  so  he  does  not  insist  on  his  view  of  the  mat- 
ter, but  delights,  not  only  to  bring  his  desires  to  God,  assured 
of  His  keenest  sympathy,  but  delights  also  to  surrender  those 
desires  to  the  Almighty  Disposer  assured  of  His  infinite  wis- 
dom and  beneficient  plan.  The  desire  of  desires  is  with  him 
that  God's  will  may  be  done.  And,  therefore,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  our  Lord  in  His  agony,  he  says,  "Not  my  will  but 
Thine  be  done."  He  knows  that  insistence  upon  his  own  will, 
tends  to  separate  him  from  the  Lord,  and  he  knows  that  what 
he  desires  may  be  no  real  good  but  a  real  evil. 

The  first  born  of  a  lady  I  knew  was,  in  his  infancy, 
brought  very  near  death.  The  unchasened  spirit  of  the 
mother  could  not  endure  the  possibility  of  his  loss.  She  de- 
termined that  he  should  not  die,  went  to  her  room,  resolved 
to  insist  with  the  Lord  upon  the  life  of  her  child  till  she  felt 
sure  that  her  petition  was  granted.    Well,  the  child's  life  was 


i&etn  jFteDetick  JLa  I&ue  Eing      57 

spared,  and  he  grew  up  to  be  her  curse — wicked,  undutiful 
and  cruel.  He  made  her  life  one  constant  agony  by  his  be- 
havior and  she  regarded  it  all  as  a  punishment  for  her 
unhallowed  prayer.  A  prayer,  take  notice,  of  unbounded 
confidence,  but  without  an  atom  of  faith. 

And  now  this  unhallowed  prayer  is  made  by  the  Chris- 
tian Scientists  the  very  principle  of  God's  action.  He  cannot 
He  must  not,  if  He  be  good  and  Almighty,  allow  anything 
to  come  upon  us  that  is  unpleasant  or  painful.  Christians 
cannot  accept  this  for  it  amounts  to  our  taking  upon  our- 
selves (as  far  as  wishes  go)  the  government  of  the  Universe; 
and  that  would  be  as  ridiculous  and  more  disastrous  than  to 
allow  a  child  to  dictate  to  its  elders  how  he  should  deal  with 
it.  No !  Christians  do  not  believe  in  a  God  who  is  practically 
a  principle  at  the  base  of  the  universe,  whose  action  can  be 
certainly  predicted,  but  in  a  God,  who  is  free  and  wise  and 
loving,  who  is  the  Governor  of  the  Universe,  and  who  does 
everything  "after  the  counsel  of  His  will."  To  them  His 
ways  may  be  at  times  obscure,  clouds  and  darkness  may 
surround  Him,  but  in  the  center  of  the  darkness,  they  know 
are  enthroned  Justice  and  Judgment  and  Love  as  well  as 
Almighty  Power.  When  Christians  pray,  then  they  delight 
to  surrender  their  desires  to  Him,  since  He  knows  best. 
Beautiful  is  it  when  a  faithful  soul,  desiring  greatly,  urges 
greatly  its  desire  upon  God,  but  loving  Him  better  than  its 
desires  chooses  its  Heavenly  Father's  will  rather  than  its  own, 
not  merely  resigning  itself  to  that  will,  but  accepting  it  as  the 
sum  and  substance  of  its  desires,  so  that  though  there  be 
momentary  loss  and  pain,  in  the  end  there  will  be  perfect 
satisfaction. 

Well,  if  Christian  Science  were  true  I  cannot  but  own 
that  there  would  be  a  certain  apparent  gain,  but  the  loss 
would  be  terrible.  There  is  something  better  than  health,  the 
society  of  One  who  seeks  us,  especially  when  we  are  in 
trouble  or  sorrow  or  pain.  We  cannot  turn  our  face  towards 
Him  without  His  turning  His  face  towards  us.     One  mo- 


58  GelecteD  psalms  attD  a^onogtapfr* 

ment's  assurance  of  His  love  outweighs  all  trials  whatsover 
they  may  be.  But  if  the  doctrine  of  Christian  Science  is  true, 
all  this  is  impossible.  We  cannot  love  the  attraction  of  gravi- 
tation, nor  can  the  attraction  of  gravitation  love  us,  thoroughly 
as  it  is  to  be  depended  upon.  Nor  can  we  love  a  God  whose 
acts  are  the  inevitable  outcome  of  Himself  without  any  re- 
gard to  us  or  for  us,  nor  can  He  love  us.  The  greatest  of 
all  possessions,  the  Great  Companion,  is  gone.  And  in  order 
to  have  Him  go  we  have  been  obliged  to  deny  the  sight  of  our 
eyes,  the  hearing  of  our  ears,  the  very  common  sense  that 
lifts  us  above  the  brutes. 

There  is  a  better  way  to  take  when  we  look  into  the 
face  of  terrible  sorrow  and  pain,  the  way  taken  by  Him  who 
suffered  physically  more  than  any  of  us  could  suffer,  and 
whose  mental  sufferings  were  incalculable  and  even  incon- 
ceivable by  us.  It  is  the  way  for  us  all.  "If  it  be  possible  let 
this  cup  pass  from  me,  nevertheless  not  my  will  but  Thine  be 
done."  "Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 
That  was  the  way  that  led  him  to  the  right  hand  of  the 
throne  of  God,  and  it  is  the  way  we  must  tread  if  we  would 
share  His  throne.  This  is  a  warfare  that  we  are  engaged  in, 
and  we  must  fight  to  the  death,  the  reward  is  sure.  We 
should  not  seek  trials,  but  if  they  come  we  may  with  the 
Apostle  James  count  it  all  joy.  They  that  are  tried  most 
are  apt  to  have  most  wide  intercourse  with  their  Lord. 

"And  what  would  you  say,"  asked  one  of  a  poor  beg- 
gar, "if  the  Lord  should  send  you  to  Hell?  Would  you  still 
say  that  all  was  for  the  best?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  beggar,  "for,  by  the  arms  of  my  faith 
and  the  arms  of  His  love,  I  am  united  with  Him  so  that  we 
can  never  be  separated.  If  he  sent  me  to  Hell,  to  Hell  he 
would  go  with  me,  and  there  I  would  rather  be  than  in  Heav- 
en without  Him." 


Rett.  JFreOetick  JLa  Kite  ffitfng      30 

£§>pencer'g  Cfjeorp  of 
Religion. 

Religion  is  one  thing,  and  an  account  of  its  inception 
and  growth  another.  An  account  of  the  inception  and 
growth  of  consciousness  cannot  account  for  consciousness  any 
more  than  a  description  of  the  monkey  accounts  for  the 
monkey.  So  a  natural  history  of  religion  does  not  account 
for  religion.  Mr.  Spencer  does  not  seem  to  take  in  this. 
Philosophy  is  something  quite  different  from  religion. 
Philosophy  develops  abstract  ideas  of  God.  Religion  side 
by  side  with  it  develops  concrete  and  often  superstitious 
ideas  of  God. 

Spencer  finds  facts,  but  he  does  not  find  the  order  of  the 
facts;  that  he  invents.  A  quite  different  aspect  is  given  to  the 
facts  of  religion  if  we  assume  an  order  of  degradation  or  im- 
provement. Then  also  when  he  finds  his  order,  it  may  not 
be  the  universal  order.  E.g.,  side  by  side  in  the  mind  of  the 
same  person  at  the  same  time  may  decay  an  old  religion  and 
arise  a  new  one.  Brahmanism  did  not  arise  after  the  decay 
of  the  Vedic  religion.  It  arose  in  the  minds  of  those  in 
whom  the  Vedic  religion  was  decaying.  It  was  formed 
through  that  decay.  We  can  trace  this  in  our  own  experi- 
ence, for  our  religion  never  remains  the  same  even  for  a  day. 
If  we  grow  not  into  the  knowldge  of  the  true  God,  we  are 
ever  turning  Him  into  a  false  God.  As  the  sense  of  depend- 
ence on  a  living  Christ  fades  away,  dependence  upon  a 
church,  a  succession,  increases.  As  spiritual  worship  dies, 
the  Mass  arises.  Even  the  covering  used  to  hide  a  dirty  fur 
coat  becomes  a  surplice  and  a  fetich.  If  there  is  a  universal 
•rder,  is  it  one  of  degradation. 

Spencer  must  account  for  the  degradation  of  religion. 
Philosophy  may  have  an  influence  on  religion,  but  that  is  not 


60  ^eiecteD  psalmg  ano  e$onogtapf)g 

the  development  of  religion.  Spencer,  too,  does  not  take  ac- 
count of  mythology,  which  imports  into  religion  as  facts  ideas 
that  have  not  been  rationally  developed. 


Ecu.  jFreoericit  Ha  Rue  King      61 

Subconscious! 

Cljrtsttamtp. 

1 .  The  Lord's  Supper  is  symbolical  of  that  vital  union 
between  Christ  and  the  believer  which  is  the  essential  condi- 
tion and  direct  source  of  salvation. 

2.  This  union  is  not  moral  or  intellectual  or  social  at 
all.  It  is  not  rapport  with  the  Lord,  though  issuing  in  rap- 
port. It  is  entirely  independent  of  and  beneath  the  con- 
sciousness, though  issuing  in  consciousness. 

3.  This  union  is  so  independent  of  consciousness,  or  the 
use  of  the  truth,  that  it  may  take  place  at  birth,  or  in  infancy 
at  the  moment  of  baptism,  or  at  any  moment  without  bap- 
tism; in  an  adult,  at  a  moment  when  he  is  occupied  with  the 
truth,  or  when  he  is  thinking  of  something  else ;  at  the  moment 
of  his  trusting  in  Christ  or  before  any  conscious  act  of  trust 

4.  It  is  formed  by  an  act  of  God,  and  is  therefore 
His  deed  and  irresistible;  and  yet  it  interferes  not  with  free- 
dom, any  more  than  the  traits  we  derive  from  our  parents 
interfere  with  our  freedom.  God  in  this  change  works  out 
from  not  on  us. 

5.  It  is  a  new  birth  by  the  Holy  Spirit  whereby  we 
become  brethren  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

6.  But  though  it  is  wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  it  is 
not  a  mere  change  of  our  spirit,  any  more  that  what  was 
wrought  in  the  Virgin  Mary  by  the  Holy  Spirit  was  a  mere 
change  in  her  spirit.  That  resulted  in  bringing  into  the 
world  a  human  being  of  a  new  type  and  the  new  birth  in  the 
case  of  any  man  results  in  bringing  into  the  world  one  more 
human  being  of  that  new  type. 

7.  This  is  effected  by  implanting  in  us  the  whole 
glorified  life  of  the  God-Man,  uniting  us  to  Him  in  such 
a  way  that  when  we  are  perfectly  redeemed  we  shall  owe  all 


62  Selected  Psalms  anD  6©onograpi)$ 

we  call  ourselves  to  Him;  just  as  we  now  owe  all  that  we 
call  ourselves  in  the  Natural  State  to  our  parents.  The 
life  of  the  child  and  of  father  or  brother  and  brother  is  how- 
ever numerically  two,  the  life  of  the  believer  and  Christ  is 
numerically  one.  Just  as  is  the  life  of  my  right  and  left  hand. 
Also,  it  must  be  noted  that  Christ  does  not  dwell  personally 
in  us  as  the  Holy  Spirit  does,  although  our  life  is  one  and  the 
same  with  Him. 

8.  This  union  with  Chnst  results,  when  the  glorified 
state  is  reached,  in  our  becoming  exactly  like  Christ;  as  truly 
divine  as  He  is,  only  in  dependence  upon  Him,  with  our 
whole  being  pulsing  in  harmony  with  the  Holy  Spirit  the 
divine  soul  of  our  souls,  with  every  human  grace  of  the 
Lord  reproduced  in  us  in  perfection  and  completeness  of 
power,  yet  all  these  graces  our  own  in  spontaneity;  standing 
in  the  same  relation  to  the  Father  as  He  does,  occupying  the 
same  position  towards  the  universe  beneath  that  He  does, 
reigning  on  His  throne  and  raying  forth  His  glory  not  through 
reflection  but  through  possession — all  these  powers  and  en- 
dowments inherently  our  own  and  not  the  result  of  contin- 
uous conscious  rapport  with  the  Lord,  yet  nevertheless  in  utter 
dependence  on  and  abiding  in  Him.  But  in  this  life  we  only 
partially  attain.  Grand  as  is  the  result  of  the  new  birth  it  is 
called  a  "seal"  and  an  "earnest"  merely.  And  yet  as  a 
beginning  it  has  a  rounded  completeness.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
work  of  grace  is  spoken  of  often  as  if  it  were  perfect.  Be- 
lievers, because  they  are  believers,  are  said  to  have  died,  to 
have  been  made  alive,  to  have  risen,  to  be  incapable  of  sin, 
to  be  not  guilty.  The  infant  possesses,  potentially  and  in 
germ,  all  that  the  grown  man  possesses  and  so  the  babe  in 
Christ  possesses  potentially  and  in  germ  all  that  Christ 
is,  since  he  is  one  with  Chirst — and  the  believer  by  living 
more  and  more  from  the  redeemed  core  of  his  being,  may 
make  his  own  the  impulses  and  tendencies  of  Christ's  being 
and,  according  to  his  faith,  may  with  greater  and  greater 
truth  say  "for  me  to  live  is  Christ." 


Eeti.  jFredetick  Ha  Rue  I&ing       63 

9.  But  that  the  vital  relation  established  at  the  mom- 
ent of  regeneration  may  become  vital  possession  there  are 
required  acts  of  creative  power.  For  the  gift  of  grace  in  re- 
generation is  not  a  germ  that  needs  only  the  fostering  Word 
to  increase  and  develop  it;  it  must  also  be  added  to  by 
the  same  power  that  first  wrought  it.  This  truth  is  set  forth 
in  the  endlessly  repeated  Supper  of  the  Lord. 

1 0.  Which  not  merely  exhibits  to  the  mind  the  Word 
of  Truth  but  affords  us  the  best  of  all  opportunities  to  re- 
ceive that  which  it  signifies,  viz:  the  communion  (or  partak- 
ing) of  the  theanthropic  life  of  the  Son  of  God. 

1  1 .  Which  we  may  in  the  Lord's  Supper  not  pray 
for  but  claim  and  seize  as  our  own  by  virtue  of  a  grant  now 
1  800  years  old. 


64  ©electeO  psalms  ano  e^onograpljs 


infant  Papttsim. 

Christianity  was  intended  to  arouse  and  secure  two 
principles  in  the  Christian, — dependence  and  independence. 
The  gospel  proclaims  that  salvation  is  a  gracious  gift  which 
no  working,  striving  or  running  on  our  part  will  ever  enable 
us  to  attain;  while  at  the  same  time  not  only  urging  us  to 
activity,  but  assuring  us  that,  unless  we  work  and  strive  and 
run,  we  will  surely  fail.  In  the  preaching  of  the  Word  these 
two  principles  are  united  and  co-ordinate. 

In  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  though  the  gift 
of  grace  is  made  more  prominent  and  manifest,  we  are,  never- 
theless, called  upon  to  act,  to  take  and  eat,  to  put  forth 
the  hand  of  faith.  And  he  has  not  been  fully  taught,  who 
does  not  know  that  at  this  ordinance,  as  everywhere  in  our 
Christian  course,  we  are  like  the  man  with  the  withered  hand : 
we  receive  the  gift  of  grace  through  the  doing  of  an  act  that 
without  that  gift  of  grace  we  could  never  do.  In  the  baptism 
of  adults  although  the  gift  of  grace  is  still  prominent  and 
manifest,  something  is  required  of  the  applicant.  He  must  have 
sufficient  knowledge,  and  he  must  make  an  open  confession 
of  Christ.  Even  in  the  case  of  infant  baptism,  where  a  little 
creature  is  brought  to  the  rite  who  has  no  choice  in  the 
matter,  who  can  not  do  anything  at  all,  who  can  not  hear  the 
gospel  message,  who  can  neither  repent  nor  believe,  even 
here  there  is  something  more  than  a  shadow  of  free  will  and 
activity  in  the  recipient  of  the  rite  carefully  preserved  either 
by  the  requirement  of  believing  parents  who  engage  to  see 
that  he  does  all  that  the  gospel  message  requires  him  to  do, 
or  of  sponsors  who,  in  his  name,  promise  to  repent  and  be- 
lieve. Nothing  can  be  more  clear  than  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  baptism,  unless  there  is  faith  and  obedience,  is  an 
empty  and  meaningless  thing.  St.  Paul,  in  demanding  good 
works  of  Christians,  does  not  say  that  the  gift  of  grace  should 


iftein  jFte&erick  La  Eue  i&ing       65 

be  followed  by  the  works  of  faith,  he  rather  insists  upon  the 
absurdity  of  any  other  supposition.  Baptism  is  no  magical 
rite,  and  the  God  who  gives  the  grace  either  before  baptism, 
or  at  baptism,  or  after  baptism,  may  allow  the  seed  of  grace 
to  lie  dormant  till  a  far  off  time  which  He  foresees,  when  it 
will  waken  at  the  gospel  message,  or  may  delay  to  implant  it 
till  such  a  time.  Who  can  say  to  Him,  "what  doest  Thou, 
or  why  doest  Thou  not?"  We  come  now  to  the  warrant 
for  Infant  Baptism. 

It  must  be  owned  that  the  command  to  baptize  only 
implies  the  previous  preaching  of  the  gospel  as  well  as  pre- 
vious faith  and  repentance.  What  right,  then,  have  we  to 
baptize  those  who  can  not  hear,  believe  or  repent?  The 
sufficient  argument  is  that  there  is  no  command  against  it. 
The  onus  probandi  lies  upon  those  who  deny  it.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  create  an  overwhelming  presumption 
in  its  favor.  The  Christian  Church  was  not  created  as  the 
world  was,  out  of  nothing  by  the  simple  will  of  God.  As 
Eve  was  formed  from  the  body  of  Adam,  so  was  it  formed 
out  of  the  church  of  the  old  covenant. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  regarded  merely  as  a  society 
within  the  Jewish  Church.  It  required  manifest  and  mighty 
signs  to  convince  the  people  of  God  that  it  was  more  than 
this,  and  finally  there  was  needed  the  heroic  remedy  of  the 
destruction  of  the  Holy  City  itself  and  the  sweeping  away 
of  the  old  economy.  Our  Lord  said  very  little  about  this 
matter,  evidently  choosing  to  leave  the  transformation  of 
the  Jewish  Church  into  the  Christian  in  the  hands  of  His 
apostles  acting  in  their  inspired  freedom.  But  there  is  a 
passage  which  may  well  be  regarded  as  a  pivotal  point  in  the 
history  of  redemption.  In  Luke  18:15  we  are  told  that 
babes  were  brought  to  our  Lord  that  they  might  be  touched 
by  Him,  and  that  upon  the  disciples  discouraging  this,  Jesus 
called  the  little  ones  to  Him  and  said,  "forbid  them  not:  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  God."  Now,  then,  it  is  not  for  one 
moment  to  be  supposed  that  the  disciples  behaved  inhumanly 


66  ©electeD  psalms  and  6$onograp&0 

in  their  opposition.  If  these  infants  had  been  diseased  we  can 
not  doubt  that  they  would  gladly  have  themselves  brought 
them  to  the  Saviour's  arms.  But  regarding  as  they  did 
Christ's  following  as  simply  a  society  or  sect  within  the  Jewish 
church,  they  could  not  imagine  what  babes  had  to  do  with  it, 
and  hence  their  opposition  to  what  they  probably  considered 
as  an  useless,  troubling  of  their  teacher.  Our  Lord's  signi- 
ficant act  and  more  significant  words  are  as  much  as  to  say, 
"those  who  are  mine  are  something  other  than  a  sect  or 
party,  they  are  a  church  because  they  are  a  race.  And 
though  infants  can  not  be  members  of  a  sect,  they  can  be 
members  of  a  race  as  well  as  adults.  Nicodemus  seemed 
to  have  the  same  low  idea  of  the  Christian  movement  when 
he  hailed  Christ  as  "a  teacher  sent  from  God,"  for  our  Lord 
at  once  announced  to  him  that  to  the  kingdom  of  God  which 
He  proclaimed  no  amount  of  instruction  would  admit,  that  a 
man  must  be  born — must  be  newborn,  to  become  a  member 
of  the  new  race.  It  was  no  new  thing  that  a  church  should 
also  be  a  race.  The  Jewish  church  was  such  and  even  infants 
simply  because  of  their  natural  birth  received  the  sign  of 
church  membership.  And  then  consider  the  part  played  by 
race  throughout  the  history  of  redemption.  It  is  little  more 
than  a  string  of  genealogies,  and  all  this  is  dwelt  upon  as  being 
of  the  highest  moment  to  an  event  that  outrages  our  modern 
sense  of  propriety.  The  unfortunate  man  who  was  incapaci- 
tated from  continuing  the  race  could  not  be  counted  a  mem- 
ber of  the  church.  It  would  have  required  a  specific  state- 
ment on  the  part  of  our  Lord  to  dispossess  His  followers  of 
the  pre-possession  that  the  church  was  a  race.  But  we  see 
it  was  confirmed,  only  care  was  taken  to  show  that  it  was  a 
new  race  that  was  begun  on  earth.  This  our  Lord  clearly 
sets  forth  when  he  says  to  Nicodemus,  "except  a  man  be 
born  of  water  and  the  Spirit  he  can  not  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,"  clearly  showing  that  it  is  a  spiritual  change 
superinduced  on  our  natural  life  by  the  volition  of  the  Spirit 
upon  application;  no  one  can  fail  to  see  the  allusion  to  the 
ordinance  of  baptism. 


Eeth  jFreOeuck  !La  Eue  i&fng       67 

So  then  we  see  that  the  church  is  a  new  race  formed 
out  of  the  natural  by  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  upon  the 
asking  of  the  church.     If  this  be  so,  then,  infants  or  adults, 
all  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  the  selfsame  way;   "which 
were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of 
the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."     And  why  then  should  not 
an  infant  be  brought  to  baptism?     Why  should  the  church 
not  ask  for  its  new  birth  in  the  new  race?     Even  if  there  were 
no   foregoing  and   well  nigh  irresistible   presumption   in  its 
favor,  the  very  love  with  which  the  beloved  of  God  yearn 
over  their  infants  and  long  for  their  salvation  justifies  their 
bringing  them  to  baptism.     What  more  warrant  do  they  need 
than  the  love  that  God  has  planted  in  their  hearts  and  his 
word,   "open  thy  mouth  and  I  will  fill  it."     Our  Saviour 
said,  "ask  and  ye  shall  receive,"  and  what  should  they  ask 
for  if  not  for  this?     Am  I  not  right  in  saying  that  the  suffi- 
cient argument  for  the  baptism  of  infants  is  that  there  is  no 
command  against  it?     For  infant  baptism  is  nothing  but  the 
prayer  of  faith  in  symbol  that  God  would  make  the  little 
one  whom  we  love  a  member  of  the  new  race  which  the 
second  Adam,   the  Lord  from  heaven,   has  begun   in  this 
world.     To  Him  we  come.     This  is  no  compelling  rite  as 
some  would  teach.     We  may  use  the  rite  most  accurately, 
but  unless  He  will  to  give,  it  will  be  as  vain  and  empty  as 
when  Gehazi  laid  the  rod  upon  the  face  of  the  child,  "but 
there  was  neither  voice  or  hearing."     But  who  that  remem- 
bers the  fullness  of  the  Saviour's  promise,   and  remembers 
His  love  for  those  who  love  Him,  will  not  be  impelled  to 
something  more  than  hope  that  they  who  have  been  baptized 
with  water  have  also  been  baptized  by  the  Holy  Spirit;  and 
will  not  feel  that  though  we     may     not     assert     that     the 
little  one  has  become  a  new  creature,  we  may  assume  it,  and 
in  sign  of  our  faith  may  give  it  a  new  name — the  Christian 
name?      The  difference  between  the  words  "assume"   and 
"assert"   involves   the   whole   difference   between   faith   and 
science. 


63  ^eiecteD  psalms  ano  Qionograp&s 

Assertion  implies  certainty;  faith  implies  assurance.  As 
mental  exercises  these  are  entirely  different  from  each  other 
and  are  occupied  with  entirely  different  objects.  Science  is 
occupied  with  things,  faith  with  persons.  No  man  has  a 
right  to  assert  unless  he  is  absolutely  certain,  and  we  can  be 
absolutely  certain  of  things  alone.  The  moment  we  deal 
with  persons  we  come  into  the  region  of  free  will,  and  nobody 
can  be  absolutely  certain  how  a  free  being  will  act,  though  he 
may  be  perfectly  sure  that  he  will  act  in  a  certain  way;  e.g., 
no  one  can  be  certain  that  any  one  who  loves  him  to-day 
will  love  him  to-morrow,  while  at  the  same  time  he  may  be 
perfectly  sure  of  it.  No  one  can  be  certain  that  he  will  be 
able  the  next  moment  to  put  his  hand  to  his  head,  and  yet  life 
would  be  impossible  if  he  could  not  be  sure  of  that  and  other 
like  things.  Now,  when  I  come  to  God  for  anything,  I  can 
not  be  certain  that  that  thing  will  be  obtained,  because  He 
may  see  fit  to  withhold  it;  and  every  true  prayer  implies  this. 
But  it  is  my  right  and  duty  to  go  away  feeling  that  my  prayer 
will  be  answered.  I  can  not  be  certain  of  possessing  the 
thing,  but  I  can  be  sure  of  possessing  God.  My  prayer  is  not 
simply  a  petition  that  God  would  give  me  a  certain  specified 
thing,  but  it  is  as  well  the  expression  of  a  desire 
that  God's  will  may  be  done.  The  prayer  of  faith  does  not 
insist. 

Now  infant  baptism  is  a  petition  to  God  through  symbol, 
that  He  at  the  time  that  the  infant  is  presented 
to  Him  would  regenerate  it.  The  principle  that  our  Lord 
lays  down  with  reference  to  petitions  is  this,  that,  when  we 
ask  anything  we  should  believe  that  we  have  it,  and  then  we 
will  receive — not  perhaps  the  exact  thing  asked  for,  but  what 
is  essentially  the  same.  We  can  not  be  certain  of  the  eternal 
salvation  of  any  one  person,  that  we  must  leave  in  the  hands 
of  God,  and  in  His  hands  alone  there  is  comfort  in  leaving 
it.  It  must  be  as  He  wills,  and  His  infinite  will  is  rooted 
in  infinite  love.  Now,  when  we  consider  how  broad  were 
the  boundaries  of  the  ancient  church,  including  infants,  and 


Rem  jFreDerick  La  Rue  ming      69 

when  we  remember  that  our  Saviour  has  assured  us  that  even 
infants  are  not  excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven — the 
"Church  of  the  First  Born,"  when  we  remember  how  He  has 
always  honored  the  family,  and  realize  that  the  very  tender- 
ness with  which  father  and  mother  hang  over  a  little  one, 
is  in  very  truth  the  tenderness  of  the  Lord  Himself,  since  it  is 
one  of  the  manifestations  of  His  Character  in  whose  image  we 
are  made,  and  when  we  consider  what  power  an  infant's 
appeal  to  his  parents  has  by  reason  of  that  implanted  tender- 
ness; and  recall  the  fact  that  we  are  permitted  to  call  God 
Our  Father,  what  bounds  shall  be  set  to  the  confident  expec- 
tations of  parents  when  they  ask  something  so  near  their  hearts 
as  the  salvation  of  their  child?  Shall  they  not  believe  that 
the  power  that  child  has  with  them  is  the  measure  of  the 
power  they  have  with  God?  And  though  they  can  not 
assert  that  at  this  or  that  moment  God  has  wrought  the 
mighty  work  of  the  new  creation  upon  their  child,  may 
they  not  assume — take  for  granted,  that  He  to  whose  arms 
they  bring  their  little  one  will  receive  it  and  never  let  it  go? 
Are  they  not  warranted  henceforth  to  treat  their  child  as 
already  one  of  the  family  of  God? 


70   SrlecrcD  Psalms  anD  e^onograpbs 


Horfcte  Supper. 

(The  following  monograph  may  not  emphasize  suf- 
ficiently, according  to  the  judgment  of  some  readers,  the 
pictorial  analogical,  and  teaching  power  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. Yet  it  is  hoped  that  the  majority  will  agree  in  saying 
that  my  brother  has  called  attention  to  the  most  important 
meaning  of  the  Sacrament,  a  meaning  often  overlooked  by 
teachers   of  Christian   doctrine. — A.   B.   K.) 

What  Mean  Ye  by  this  Service,  rendered  in  coming  to 
the  Lord's  Table? 

1st.  What  is  this  service?  Our  Lord  in  instituting  it 
said,  "Take,  eat;"  "Drink  ye  all  of  it."  St.  Paul  in  1st 
Cor.  1  1  :20  describes  it  as  eating  the  Lord's  Supper,  and 
again  in  verse  26,  "as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread  and  drink 
this  cup."  In  Acts  it  is  described  as  a  breaking  of  bread. 
That,  of  course,  can  mean  only  an  eating  of  bread.  It  may 
then  be  described  as  eating  and  drinking  in  obedience  to  the 
Lord's  command.  The  Lord's  Supper  begins  and  ends  with 
the  act  of  eating  and  drinking.  It  is  evident  then  that  the 
contemplation  of  the  bread  and  wine  as  placed  on  the  table, 
or  as  broken  or  poured  out,  or  meditations  on  these,  or  upon 
what  is  signified  by  these,  is  not  what  the  Lord  has  com- 
manded, but  to  eat  and  drink. 

2nd.  The  next  question  is,  who  perform  this  service? 
The  answer  follows  directly  from  what  has  been  said  above. 
The  act  of  eating  and  drinking  is  the  act  of  the  congregation; 
they  perform  the  whole  of  the  rite;  the  part  of  the  minister  is 
no  essential  portion  of  the  rite.  The  arranging  of  the  bread 
and  wine,  the  breaking  and  pouring  forth,  are  no  more  part 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  than  the  buying  and  bringing  of  the 
bread  and  wine.  These  acts  merely  prepare  the  way  for 
the  act  of  eating  and  drinking,  which  is  the  true  supper  of 
the  Lord.  Even  the  blessing  is  no  essential  part  of  the  rite, 
but  was  used  by  our  Saviour  because  it  was  the  invariable 


Eeth  jFreOerick  La  i&ue  ifting      71 

accompaniment  of  every  Jewish  meal,  only  to  mark  more 
clearly  that  it  was  simply  a  meal;  and  is  used  by  us  after 
His  example. 

3rd.  If  then,  brethern,  this  service  you  are  engaged  in, 
is  simply  and  solely  an  act  of  eating  and  drinking  performed 
by  you,  the  question  is  in  order,  what  is  the  significance  of  it? 
What  mean  ye  by  this  service?  You  mean  of  course  to  obey 
a  command  of  the  Lord,  but  surely  something  more  than 
that.  Our  Lord  enjoined  not  only  the  act  but  the  intention 
with  which  we  should  perform  it.  He  said  "Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  me."  This  must  be  taken  in  connection 
with  His  words,  "Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body,"  and  of  the 
cup,  "drink  ye,  this  is  my  blood."  It  is  clear  that  the  re- 
membrance is  specialized.  It  is  the  remembrance  of  His 
death,  and  we  also  see  that  it  is  a  remembrance  that  His 
death  was  the  means  of  furnishing  for  the  supply  of  our 
necessities  something  that  is  symbolized  by  sustenance  for  our 
bodies. 

In  Luke  the  body  (i.  e.,  as  broken)  is  said  to  be  "given 
for  you"  and  the  blood  to  be  "poured  out  for  you."  We  are 
obliged  to  connect  this  with  what  our  Lord  says,  John  6 :5 1  : 
"I  am  the  living  bread,  which  came  down  from  heaven.  If 
any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever ;  yea,  and  the 
bread  which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world." 
The  remembrance  is  further  specialized  by  this.  It  is  a  call- 
ing to  mind  that  His  flesh  eaten  is  not  only  life,  but  gives 
eternal  life.  Giving  and  eating  of  his  flesh  is  the  fulfillment 
of  the  purpose  for  which  he  came  into  the  world,  and  so  we 
see  in  Matt.  26:28,  this  eating  and  drinking  is  connected 
directly  with  the  remission  of  sins.  Also  in  Luke  22 :20,  the 
blood  is  called  "the  blood  of  the  new  testament."  What 
this  new  covenant  is,  is  plain  from  Heb.  10:16,  it  is  the 
knitting  of  the  law  into  the  very  texture  of  the  soul.  This 
eating  and  drinking  is  the  gaining  a  new  principle  of  life  for 
the  believer  (John  6:51).  As  Paul  says  (Gal.2:20)  "I 
have  been  crucified  with  Christ,  and  yet  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me."  And  St.  Paul  says,  (1st  Cor.  1 1  :26) 
the  eating  and  drinking  proclaims  the  death  of  the  Lord. 


72   Selected  psalms  ana  £©onograpf)s 

Certainly  not  the  mere  fact  of  His  death,  but  also  the  effect. 
It  proclaims  the  gospel,  that  the  Lord's  death  is  the  life  of 
the  church. 

This  must  be  so  if  we  call  to  mind  what  was  shown 
clearly  at  first,  that  this  rite  is  not  a  symbolic  exhibition,  but 
a  symbolic  partaking.  The  symbol  is  the  partaking  of  bread 
and  wine;  the  thing  signified  is  the  partaking  of  Christ's  flesh 
and  blood,  and  we  are  guarded,  in  John  6,  against  a  too 
literal  interpretation  of  the  words  flesh  and  blood,  by  being 
assured  that  Christ's  body  in  its  entiety  will  be  removed  away 
to  heaven,  so  that  we  cannot  partake  of  it  and  by  being 
assured  that  it  would  not  profit  us  at  all  if  we  could  partake 
of  it.  "The  flesh  profiteth  nothing,  the  words  that  I  speak 
unto  you  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  And  note  that  we 
are  assured  also  by  these  latter  words  that  all  that  is  signified 
by  the  flesh  and  blood  and  life  of  the  Son  of  God  may 
be  had  apart  from  the  rite  itself,  as  well  as  in  the  use  of 
it. 

4th.  Now,  then  we  have  the  Lord's  Supper  described 
as  an  eating  and  drinking,  to  call  to  mind  that  we  have 
through  His  death  Christ  made  to  us  sustenance  that  is  life- 
giving,  and  that  will  enable  one  to  live  forever,  to  give  us 
which  is  the  very  purpose  of  His  incaranation,  through  which 
we  have  remission  of  sins  and  have  the  law  made  part  of  the 
very  constitution  of  our  being,  which  is  called  the  partaking 
of  His  flesh  and  blood. 

Can  we  take  a  view  of  the  rite  that  shall  gather  all 
these  statements  up  and  unite  them  in  one?  We  can  first 
consider  what  we  are  told  as  to  the  effect  of  the  death  of 
Christ  on  Christ  Himself.  In  Heb.  3:10  we  are  told  that 
He  was  made  perfect  through  sufferings  (also  5:9).  This 
perfection  is  called  by  our  Lord  Himself,  His  being  glorified 
(John  13:31)  in  other  words  the  removal  of  every  trace  of 
his  humiliation.  For  this  reason  He  speaks  of  His  death  as 
a  baptism,  before  it  took  place,  and  afterwards  He  says  "All 
power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth."  The  rep- 
resentations of  Scripture  are  something  to  this  effect.  The 
eternal  Son  resigned  His  position,  emptied  Himself,  became 
a  man,  grew  in  knowledge  and  in  power,  till,  through  death, 


i&eto*  jFreOerick  &a  Eue  ding      73 

every  trace  of  humiliation  being  removed,  He  resumed  His 
position  in  heaven  at  God's  right  hand,  man  still,  but  with 
the  divine  glory  perfectly  manifested  (John  17:24).  He 
then  became  the  second  Adam  of  a  new  race  ( 1  Cor.  1  5  :45  ) 
a  life  giving  spirit.  When  did  He  assume  the  relation  of  a 
life-giving  Spirit  to  His  church?  Apparently  upon  His  ex- 
altation and  reception  into  glory.  His  description  of  His 
death  as  the  dying  of  the  seed  in  order  that  it  might  multiply 
itself  shows  this,  the  fact  that  the  Holy  Spirit  could  not  be 
given  until  after  His  glorification  shows  this,  and  the  giving 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  the  founding  of  the  Christian  church. 
Now  to  this  the  rite  corresponds.  As  the  death  of  the 
sacrificial  victim  enabled  it  to  furnish  its  flesh  for  food  to  the 
worshippers  as  well  as  its  fat  for  an  offering  to  God  for  sin,  so 
Christ,  through  death,  was  able  to  make  Himself  a  life- 
giving  sustenance  to  the  church.  How  this  was,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  inquire,  the  fact  is  distinctly  asserted  by  Scrip- 
ture. But  Christ's  blood,  we  are  told  in  the  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  was  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins.  How 
can  this  eating  and  drinking  symbolize  the  efficiency  of 
Christ's  death  for  the  remission  of  sins?  Why  would  it  not 
be  sufficient  to  simply  exhibit  the  bread  broken  and  the  wine 
poured  out  to  assure  us  that  Christ  died  for  us  and  to  be  the 
seal  to  us  of  its  offer  to  us?  Why  should  we  eat  and  drink 
In  other  words:  why  should  the  partaking  of  Him  as  life- 
giving  sustenance  be  symbolically  set  forth,  if  the  work  of 
Christ  in  remitting  our  sins  were  done  apart  from  ourselves? 
But  that  is  not  the  case;  if  it  were,  we  would  find  it  difficult 
to  answer  the  questions  of  unbelievers.  "How  does  the  death 
of  Christ  show  that  God  is  dealing  in  strict  justice  while 
exercising  the  prerogative  of  mercy  in  remitting  our  sins?" 
But  the  Scripture  states  that  we  are  united  to  Christ  in  such 
a  way  that  His  dying  is  our  dying,  and  His  living  our  living, 
just  as  the  death  of  a  plant  involves  the  death  of  every  branch 
that  lives  in  it.  (Rom.  6:5  and  Gal.  2:20)  Paul  says,  "I 
have  been  crucified  with  Christ."  The  eating  and  the  drink- 
ing is  the  sign  that  we  partake  of  that  death.  We  eat  and 
drink  in  order  to  make  the  act  of  faith  by  which  we  partake 
in  that  death. 


74   Selected  psalms  anD  ^onogtapijs 

Now  the  only  way  for  us  to  partake  in  Christ's  death 
is  to  be  united  to  Him  in  life.  When  Christ  died  on  the 
cross  all  the  members  of  His  body  died  with  Him,  and  when 
He  rose  all  the  members  of  His  body  rose  with  Him.  If  we 
become  members  of  Christ,  then  we  die  in  Him  and  rise  in 
Him  as  is  shown,  (Rom.  6:5.)  Now  in  the  supper  of  the 
Lord  that  life-union  is  symbolized.  He  gives  us  His  flesh 
and  blood.  That  the  bread  and  wine  are  mere  symbols, 
and  that  there  is  nothing  put  into  them  and  conveyed  by  them 
to  the  believers  is  shown  clearly  by  the  Lord  in  the  6th  of 
John  where  He  teaches  us  that  believing  is  eating.  Why, 
then,  is  such  a  strange,  and  even  horrible,  symbol  used  as 
that  of  eating  and  drinking  His  flesh  and  blood?  It  is  be- 
cause nothing  else  would  assure  the  church  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  for  us  to  love,  obey,  adore  and  to  follow  Christ; 
there  must  be  a  union  with  Him  as  real  as  that  between  the 
branches  of  a  vine  and  the  vine,  or  the  members  of  a  body 
with  the  body.  The  symbol  of  eating  and  drinking  has  been 
wrested  into  the  "mass"  and  the  statement  that  to  believe  is 
to  eat  has  been  wrested  into  making  the  sacrament  of  the 
Supper  a  mere  symbolic  preaching  of  the  Word.  But  what 
is  the  word  set  forth?  It  is  this.  "By  trust  in  Christ  you 
may  receive  into  yourselves  the  very  life  of  Christ,  and  be 
actually  united  to  Him.  The  essence  of  the  act  of  appropria- 
tion is  faith,  not  the  use  of  the  rite,  though  the  rite  is  com- 
manded. For  the  Lord  knew  how  a  physical  act  helps  a 
mental  exercise,  and  also  that  form  of  the  rite,  even  its  mon- 
strous character,  tended  to  assure  the  church  that  there  was 
more  to  be  received  from  Christ  than  spiritual  culture.  The 
essence  of  the  act  by  which  the  woman  with  the  issue  of 
blood  got  healing  was  not  touching  the  hem  of  our  Saviour's 
garment,  but  the  faith  in  Him.  She  found  not  healing  in  the 
hem,  but  the  Saviour  wrought  on  her  because  she  touched 
the  hem  in  faith.  And  so  those  who  stretch  forth  their 
hands  to  the  table  of  the  Lord  find  not  what  they  seek  in 
the  bread  and  wine  or  in  the  representations  of  the  truth 
made  by  the  bread  and  wine  to  their  mind  and  heart,  but  in 
the  virtue  that  goes  out  of  the  Lord  because  of  their  eating 
and  drinking,  not  a  virtue  upon  their  mind  and  heart  any 
more  than  the  bread  and  wine  acts  upon  the  mind  and  heart, 


Refcn  jFreDerick  La  iftue  ding      75 

but  increased  vitality  upon  that  which  lies  below  both  mind 
and  heart,  the  life.  That  virtue  is  His  very  life,  that  life 
which  built  up  His  flesh  and  blood,  and  which  will  build  up 
His  flesh  and  blood  within  us,  making  us  His  true  blood 
kindred.  It  is  thus  that  He  becomes  a  life-giving  spirit,  the 
second  Adam  of  those  who  believe  in  Him.  We  share  the 
same  life  with  Him,  not  as  two  brothers  share  the  life  of  the 
same  parents.  His  life  and  our  life  are  one  and  the  same,  as 
the  life  of  my  right  and  left  hands  is  one  and  the  same.  Hav- 
ing this  life  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  is  said  that  we  shall  live 
forever.  In  Him,  we  can  no  more  be  holden  of  death  than 
He  could. 

Now  the  life  that  we  partake  of  is  the  glorified  life  of 
the  Son  of  God,  a  life  that  has  passed  through  the  gates  of 
death,  and  over  which  death  has  no  power,  which  has 
paid  all  dues  of  martality  and  has  come  forth  as  con- 
queror. Thus,  partaking  of  Christ's  life  becomes  partaking 
of  His  death.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Apostle  says,  that  we  are 
now  at  once  dead  and  risen. 

In  receiving  Christ  into  ourselves  then,  we  of  our  own 
accord  cast  away  as  worthless  all  that  the  penalty  due  to  sin 
could  deprive  us  of.  At  the  table  of  the  Lord  we  perform 
a  true  sacrifical  act  upon  ourselves  by  receiving  into  our- 
selves the  life  that  slays  the  old  Adamic  life  which  was  due 
to  death.  Such  a  sacrifice  that  slain  and  yet  out  of  Christ, 
we  must  suffer  the  pains  of  eternal  death;  such  a  sacrifice  that 
being  slain  and  remaining  in  Christ,  we  but  lose  our  old 
Adamic  root  of  life  and  gain  a  new  divine  root,  pay  the  pen- 
alty due  to  the  violated  law  and  yet  live,  while  at  the  same 
time  our  substitute,  Christ  pays  it.  Thus  it  is  that  Christ's 
blood  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins  brings  to  us  remission 
of  sins  by  our  drinking  in  faith  the  wine  of  which  it  is  a 
symbol.  And  thus  it  is  that  the  cup  that  was  drunk  is  the 
symbol  of  the  new  covenant  (Heb.  8:10)  and  a  means 
through  faith  in  the  appropriation  of  which  we  may  have 
God's  laws  put  into  our  minds  and  written  on  our  hearts. 
We  not  only  partake  of  Christ's  immortality  but  are  made 
like,  by  being  made  one  with,  Him.  Just  as  the  smallest 
branch    of   a   vine    possesses    all    the    characteristics    of    the 


76   Selected  psalms  ana  aponograp&si 

vine  by  being  one  with  it.  In  this  way  only  can  our  justifica- 
tion be  justified,  and  in  this  way  only  can  we  set  out  hope- 
fully to  do  what  we  are  commanded  to  do.  Vain  would  it  be 
for  the  vine  branch  cut  off  and  lying  below  to  look  up  and 
try  to  bear  fruit  as  do  the  branches  above,  but  set  back  in  the 
vine  how  easy  would  it  be  to  follow  the  vine.  And  vain 
would  it  be  for  a  man  by  believing  in  Christ  and  striving  to  do 
like  Christ  ever  to  succeed  in  being  like  Him.  He  must  first 
be  joined  to  Christ,  and  then  all  is  easy. 

From  the  words  "It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth,  the 
flesh  profiteth  nothing";  the  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto 
you  are  spirit  and  life  (John  6:63)  it  is  often  inferred  that 
the  whole  meaning  of  the  reception  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood  is  the  meditation  upon  the  truth,  and  the  effect  of  that 
is  limited  to  the  mind  and  heart.  That  is  a  very  singular 
view.  Suppose  a  man  has  ignorantly  taken  poison,  and  I 
take  him  an  antidote,  and  say  to  him.  "You  are  dying, 
but  here  is  an  antidote,  take  it  and  you  will  live.  Heed  these 
words  which  I  say,  for  they  will  give  you  life."  Now  those 
words  would  naturally  enlighten  the  mind  of  the  man  and 
fill  his  heart  with  gladness  and  grateful  feeling,  but,  if  that 
were  all,  he  would  die,  for  in  order  to  live  he  must,  besides 
knowing  of  the  remedy,  take  the  antidote. 

Now  the  words  that  our  Lord  spoke  were  words  of 
command  and  called  upon  them  to  do  something.  There 
must  not  only  be  a  thought,  there  must  be  also  an  act.  A 
hungry  beggar,  if  offered  food,  must  not  merely  meditate  on 
the  kindness  of  the  friend  who  offers  it,  he  must  eat  it  or  he 
will  starve.  So  must  we  in  the  act  of  eating,  receive  Christ  into 
ourselves  through  faith.  It  is  not  denied,  it  is  affirmed  that 
this  act  of  faith  may  be  made  away  from  the  table,  but  take 
notice,  the  act  at  the  table  is  commanded,  and  woe  to  those 
who  deliberately  neglect  it.  And  the  act  away  from  the 
table  is  not  a  meditation,  an  emotion,  a  trusting  of  Him  for 
forgiveness,  a  love  or  adoration.  It  is  a  spiritual  act  of  a  most 
real  union  with  his  flesh  and  blood  harder  to  make  than  at 
the  table.  But  there  are  those  who  say  that  in  the  Holy 
Supper  Christ  is  in  symbol  set  before  us  visibly  in  order  that 
we  may  then  and  there  rely  upon  His  perfect  sacrifice  for  us  on 


Eein  ifteDetick  La  IRtie  iking       77 

the  cross  by  which  our  sins  have  been  cancelled  forever.  But 
what  is  the  meaning  then  of  eating  and  drinking;  what  have 
they  to  do  with  our  accepting  Christ's  sacrifice  for  us?  It 
may  be  said  to  express  and  manifest  our  union  to  Christ  in 
faith  and  love  but  why  should  He  choose  so  extraordinary  a 
way  to  express  what  He  had  often  told  them  plainly,  that  they 
should  love  Him  and  trust  Him?  Why  should  He  use  so  mon- 
strous a  form  as  "my  flesh  is  meat  indeed  and  my  blood  is 
drink  indeed,"  and  again  "He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by 
me?"  It  could  only  have  been  because  it  could  not  well 
have  been  expressed  in  any  other  way.  It  must  have  been 
because  He  wished  to  tell  us  that  the  act  of  faith  effected  a 
union  with  His  living,  glorified  person,  in  an  analogous  way  as 
the  act  of  eating  bread  and  drinking  wine  unites  those  articles 
of  food  to  the  natural  body.  It  behooves  us,  then,  to  come, 
and  take,  and  eat  and  drink,  not  only  that  we  may  receive  the 
forgiveness  of  our  sins  through  the  sacrifice  set  visibly  in 
symbol  forth  to  the  eyes,  but  to  receive  His  very  life  into  our- 
selves— the  necessary  condition  of  that  forgiveness. 


78  ^electeD  psalms  mto  ^onograptJS 


$salm  19. 


There  is  a  remarkable  resemblance  and  contrast  be- 
tween this  Psalm  and  the  one  preceding.  Both  are,  in  effect, 
prophecies  of  the  Great  "restitution  of  all  things;"  but  the 
XIX  Psalm  foretells  it  through  the  order  of  the  Heavens, 
the  XVIII  through  a  sudden  and  violent  interruption  of  that 
order.  Two  aspects  of  Redemption  correspond  to  these;  the 
one,  the  renovation  of  all  things  by  moral,  spiritual  and 
creative  influences;  the  other,  the  removal  of  obstacles  to  that 
renovation,  involving  awful  destruction  and  stern  rule.  The 
former  is  set  forth  by  the  XIX,  the  latter  by  the  XVIII 
Psalms. 

TITLE 

The  Glory  of  God  in  the  Heavens 
prophecies  God's  Glory  on  the  Earth. 
This  psalm  may  be  thrown  into  two  main  divisions, 
each  of  which  has  a  subordinate  subdivision.  The  first 
main  division,  verses  1  -6,  may  be  entitled,  "The  Glory  of 
God  shown  by  the  Heavens,"  the  second,  verses  7-14,  "The 
Law,  that  is  to  bring  about  the  exhibition  of  the  Glory  of 
God  on  the  Earth."  The  first  may  be  called  "Realized 
Obedience,"  the  second  "Commanded  Obedience";  again 
the  first,  "Redemption  exhibited,"  the  second,  'Redemp- 
tion prospective;"  again,  the  first,  "Redemption  promised," 
the  second,  "Redemption  begun."  Connected  with  the  first 
division  is  the  subdivision  consisting  of  verse  4,  last  clause, 
and  verses  5  and  6,  and  forming  a  link  betweeen  the  two 
divisions;  the  sun  being  not  only  a  part  of  the  order  and 
beauty  of  the  Heavens,  but  like  the  Law  promotive  of  order 
and  beauty  below.  Connected  with  the  second  division  is  the 
subdivision  verses   12-14,  which  belongs  to  the  second,  inas- 


Eeto*  JFre&eticR  La  Hue  i&ing       79 

much  as  it  continues  the  exhibition  of  the  Law  by  its  effects 
in  an  individual,  and  to  the  first,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  realiza- 
tion prospective  and  in  germ  of  the  order  and  perfection 
prophesied  by  the  Glory  of  the  Heavens. 

Verse  1.  "The  heavens  are  telling  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  work  of  His  hands  (is)   the  firmament  declaring." 

Between  "Heavens"  and  'Firmament'  there  is  much 
the  same  difference  as  between  "sky"  and  'skies.'  They 
are  both  used  interchangeably,  yet  the  singular  is  more  as- 
sociated with  the  blue  dome  of  the  day-time,  the  plural  with 
the  starry  spaces.  Of  the  two  branches  of  the  parallelism 
therefore,  the  former  refers  rather  to  the  night  time  and  the 
other  to  the  day.  This  suits  the  next  verse.  But  yet  the 
plural  rules  throughout  the  psalm,  and  every  one  will  feel  the 
propriety  of  the  plural  as  applied  to  what  is  above  us,  if  they 
will  only  meditate  upon  the  manifold  aspects  it  presents.  The 
blue  sky  curtains  us  all  around  by  day,  but  we  have  the  sun 
and  clouds  and  their  changes.     Then  when — 

the  powers  of  the  night, 
That  range  above  the  region  of  the  wind, 
Deepening  the  courts  of  twilight,  break  them  up, 
Through  all  the  silent  spaces  of  the  worlds, 

we  have  the  multitudinous  stars  and  the  constant  motion  and 
change  of  the  whole.  These  Heavens,  the  work  of  God, 
exhibit  His  character.  Their  grandeur  is  transcendent,  their 
order  and  beauty  is  perfect;  therefore  it  is  an  exhibition,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  without  a  flaw.  To  be  sure,  the  Heavens  are 
unclean  in  God's  sight,  and  we  know  that  righteousness  does 
not  dwell  in  them;  but,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  indeed  as  far 
as  science  has  fathomed,  everything  is  self-sustaining  and 
self-adjusting  and  perfect  in  every  respect.  No  dark  and 
terrible  problems  are  set  us  by  the  starry  skies.  Since  God 
made  them,  they  show  forth  his  power  and  wisdom  and 
(since  even  the  stars  have  their  ministry  for  us)  his  benefi- 
cence.    To  fully  appreciate  how  bold  this  statement  is  we 


80  ^electeD  psalms  anO  sponograpijs; 

must  remember  that  the  celestial  bodies  were  worshipped  by 
the  nations  around. 

Verse  2.  "Day  to  day  shall  pour  out  speech,  and 
night    to  night  shall  utter  knowledge." 

There  is  some  little  doubt  about  the  grammatical  con- 
struction of  this  verse.  It  may  mean  "one  day  speaks  to 
another  day  and  one  night  to  another  night;"  or  "day  added 
to  day,"  "day  after  day  and  night  after  night  utters  speech 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth."  Perhaps  both  senses  may  be 
taken.  Not  only  does  day  after  day  and  night  after  night 
take  up  and  continue  the  witness  to  the  glory  of  God,  but 
each  day's  and  night's  witness  adds  something  peculiarly  its 
own  to  the  witness  of  another;  as  if  one  day  knew  something 
that  another  did  not  know  and  told  it  to  its  successor.  This 
verse  then  shows  us  that  the  witness  to  God's  glory  is  full  and 
continuous. 

Verse  3.  "There  is  no  speech,  and  there  are  no  words; 
not  at  all  is  their  voice  heard." 

This  can  hardly  be  said  in  order  to  correct  a  misappre- 
hension that  might  be  formed  as  to  the  meaning  of  "uttereth 
speech."  No  one  surely  needs  be  told  that  the  heavens  do 
not  talk.  The  meaning  lies  deeper  than  this.  It  means  to 
intimate  that  the  heavens  do  not  bear  witness  to  God's  glory 
by  any  direct  suggestion  of  notion,  or  notions,  or  doctrine. 
"Speech"  and  "language,"  like  "word,"  is  equivalent  to 
"doctrine" — "view."  The  rolling  Heavens  suggest  certain 
views  of  God  to  the  pure  mind;  but  it  is  by  means  of  ideas, 
not  notions.  They  appeal  to  the  intuitions  of  truth,  beauty 
and  goodness  that  are  in  all.  Far  above  all  diversions  of 
language  and  systems  of  belief  lies  a  region  in  which  all  man- 
kind are  one.  In  that  region  of  universal  language  the  Heavens 
can  speak  to  any  one  and  show  to  him  the  glory  of  God. 

Verse  4.  "In  all  the  earth  has  gone  out  their  lives 
and  in  the  end  of  the  world  (are)  their  words." 

As  one  might  describe  a  man's  farm  as  the  land  he 
measures,  so  the  prophets  of  the  skies  are  said  to  extend  their 


I&eth  jfreDerick  ita  Eue  Mm      SI 

measuring  line  over  the  whole  earth,  because  it  is  to  all  the 
earth  that  they  prophesy.  Their  preaching  is  not  merely  of 
that  kind  that  it  can  appeal  to  any  one,  but  it  does  actually 
reach  all  the  families  of  man.  What  is  it  that  the  Heavens 
reveal  to  man?  The  Apostle  Paul  (Rom.  10:18)  seems 
to  intimate  that  they  preach  the  Gospel  to  them.  Hengsten- 
berg  thinks  that  the  Apostle  merely  considers  this  verse  as  a 
prophecy  of  the  universality  of  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel 
which  obtained  in  his  day.  His  remark  is  fine:  "The  uni- 
versality of  God's  manifestation  of  Himself  in  nature  is  a 
prophecy  in  fact  of  the  universal  proclamation  of  the  Gospel. 
If  the  former  is  not  accidental,  if  it  is  grounded  in  the  Divine 
nature,  so  must  the  latter  spring  from  the  same  Divine 
nature."  Alexander  says:  "The  same  thing  might  have 
taught  the  Jews  that  their  exclusive  privileges  were  granted 
only  for  a  time  and  as  a  means  to  a  more  glorious  end."  But 
this  is  only  a  part  of  the  sense.  It  seems  very  evident  that 
the  Apostle  refers  to  a  past  prophetic  proclamation  of  the 
Gospel  to  the  Jews  in  the  15  th  verse,  and  therefore  in  the 
1  8th  to  a  past  prophetic  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
Gentiles.  The  rolling  Heavens  certainly  proclaimed  the 
eternal  power  and  Godhead  of  the  Creator  to  all  men  (Rom. 
1  :20),  and  also  that  he  is  a  God  of  order,  beauty  and 
wisdom,  that  he  is  God  of  all  and  ministers  to  all,  and  that 
therefore  he  ought  to  be  trusted  and  hoped  in  by  all  the 
world.  It  was  plainly  enough  shown  to  all  the  world  that 
God's  will  was  good  toward  them  for  them  to  have  under- 
stood it  if  their  hearts  had  not  been  turned  away  from  him. 
The  Heavens  declare  by  the  order  and  beauty  to  which  he 
has  brought  them  that  he  would  bring  about  order  and 
beauty  upon  earth.  If  this  be  the  Gospel,  and  such  the 
Apostle  would  seem  to  call  it,  then,  though  vague,  yet,  if 
met  by  a  trust  as  vague  and  some  dim  reliance  upon  Him 
who  apppealed  to  man  by  the  revelation  of  his  beauty,  power 
and  wisdom,  then  (we  are  warranted  in  saying)  the  Gospel 
would  be  accepted  and  the  acceptor  received  by  that  God 
who,  like  his  son,  quencheth  not  "the  smoking  flax." 


82  ^electeQ  psalms  anD  e@onogcap&0 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  Heavens  have  come  to 
be  regarded  in  the  course  of  time  by  the  nations  round  about 
the  Jews  as  the  peculiar  theatre  of  God's  exhibition  of  Him- 
self and  the  peculiar  seat  of  His  power.  Jehovah  is  called 
in  the  state  papers  of  the  Persians  kings,  "The  Great  God  of 
Heaven." 

The  last  clause  of  this  verse  begins  the  transition  to  the 
second  main  division  of  the  psalm.  The  sun — the  most 
magnificent  exhibitor  of  the  glory  of  God  from  the  Heavens 
is  also  an  actor  upon  earth  and  promotes  the  exhibition  of 
His  glory  there. 

"In  them" — that  is,  in  the  Heavens — "hath  He  set  a 
tabernacle  for  the  sun."  1  his  tabernacle  is  the  blue  sky, 
which  bears  a  certain  resemblance  to  a  tent  (Is.  4:22).  In 
that  tent  the  sun  always  appears  and  it  is  his  fit  dwelling,  for 
it  enhances  his  beauty  and  diffuses  his  light;  it  is  pitched 
for  him  at  the  dawn,  and  is  at  night  like  a  tent  taken  down. 

Verse  5.  "And  he  (is)  as  a  bridegroom  coming  out 
of  his  chamber;  he  rejoices  as  a  mighty  man  to  run  a  race." 

The  bridegroom  should  be  at  the  acme  of  existence, 
full  of  vigor,  life  and  beauty;  the  athlete  ("strong  man")  is 
in  the  highest  physical  condition,  full  of  eagerness  to  exert  his 
force.  These  two  comparisons  set  forth  the  wonder  of  the 
unwearied  day,  from  year  to  year  and  from  age  to  age  the 
same,  beginning  each  morning  anew  with  the  same  vigor  and 
freshness  (amid  so  much  that  grows  old  and  wears  out) 
with  which  it  shone  upon  the  first  man. 

Verse  6.  "From  the  end  of  the  Heavens  (is)  his 
outgoing  and  his  circuit  even  to  the  ends  of  them,  and  there 
is  none  (or  nothing)  hidden  from  his  heat." 

The  sun  shines  upon  the  whole  earth  and  everywhere 
produces  the  most  astonishing  effects.  Almost  all  that  makes 
this  earth  a  fit  dwelling  for  man  is  by  means  of  the  sun. 
Through  him  as  essential  condition  is  the  vegetable  world 
produced  and  distributed,  the  food  and  warmth  necessary  to 
the  existence  of  animals  furnished  and  their  place  assigned. 


I&efc*  jfreDenck  £a  Eue  fcina       83 

Also  through  him  is  the  earth  watered  from  Heaven  and  the 
rivers  formed.  All  the  power  that  is  used  by  man  is  either 
directly  or  indirectly  through  the  sun.  Water-power,  wind- 
power,  tide-power,  steam  (heat)  power  and  vital-power  are 
due  to  him.  All  that  in  this  present  earth  by  its  beauty  and 
usefulness  promises  and  prophesies  a  better  and  more  glorious 
world  is  by  means  of  the  sun.  Thus  the  sun  may  be  said  to 
effect  in  the  sphere  of  nature  the  beginning  of  God's  re- 
demptive work. 

Verse  7.  "The  law  of  Jehovah  is  perfect,  restoring 
the  soul;  the  testimony  of  Jehovah  is  sure,  making  wise  the 
simple." 

We  now  come  to  the  praises  of  the  Law.  The  connec- 
tion with  the  preceding  verses  is  plain.  The  Heavens  exhibit 
God's  glory,  the  Law  is  the  means  of  making  earth  an  exhibi- 
tion of  God's  glory.  The  earth  is  a  contrast  to  the  celestial 
regions.  The  creation  is  unredeemed  and  man,  the  most 
wonderful  of  all  God's  works,  fallen  and  in  sin ;  but  the  Law, 
preparatory  to  the  Gospel,  is  the  means  by  which,  not  only 
in  man's  heart  and  life,  God's  glory  will  in  the  end  be 
shown,  but  also  the  very  Heavens  and  earth  be  transformed 
into  the  mirror  of  the  Divine  attributes  in  the  time  of  the 
great  adoption  and  restitution. 

"The  Law  of  the  Lord" — the  law  as  a  whole,  with 
especial  reference  to  the  ceremonial  portion  of  it,  in  which 
were  revealed  the  mercy  and  grace  of  God.  This  law  was 
perfectly  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  soul.  The  word  "con- 
vert" in  our  version  is  better  "restore,"  and  many  a  Jew  in 
the  old  time  of  the  law  has  approached  the  altar  weighed 
down  with  guilt  and  despondency,  and  then,  the  burden  all 
removed,  with  a  rejoicing  heart  has  borne  witness  to  the 
power  of  the  law  to  restore  the  soul.  Blessed  were  they  above 
other  peoples  who  could  say,  "purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I 
shall  be  clean." 

"The  testimony  of  the  Lord"  is  the  law  as  bearing 
witness  to  the  holiness  of  God's  character  and  against  sin. 


84  ^electeD  psalms  and  0£onograp&0 

The  Moral  Law — the  ten  commandments — is  especially  re- 
ferred to  under  this  title.  The  ark  was  called  "the  ark  of 
the  testimony"  because  it  contained  the  tables  of  the  law,  and 
the  tabernacle  was  called  "The  Tabernacle  of  the  Testi- 
mony" because  it  contained  the  "Ark  of  the  testimony." 
This  testimony  is  sure.  The  propriety  of  this  epithet  will 
be  seen  when  we  consider  that  the  tempter  exerts  his 
craft  especially  for  the  purpose  of  making  us  unstable  in 
our  moral  judgments  and  blurring  the  distinction  between 
good  and  evil.  We  are  also  prone  to  be  led  away  by  the 
natural  heart  and  the  influence  of  others  to  call  evil  good 
and  good  evil.  Now  amid  the  moral  judgments,  varying 
with  times  and  temptations,  the  influence  of  public  opinion, 
amid  the  waverings  of  our  own  judgment  through  self-decep- 
tion, in  that  where  there  is  the  least  surety,  the  Law  is  sure. 
It  is  no  weather-cock  like  conscience,  obeying  the  least  flaw 
of  wind,  but  fixed  as  the  eternal  adamant  and  often  contra- 
dicting our  fancied  spiritual  judgments. 

"Making  wise  the  simple."  The  "simple"  are  God's 
children,  who  are  sincere  and  earnest,  but  who  need  enlight- 
ment  because  of  the  stress  of  temptation  or  the  bewilderment 
of  false  reasons.  Notice  is  to  be  taken  that  it  is  not  said 
that  the  "testimony  of  the  Lord"  will  give  to  the  simple  ones 
minutely  specific  precepts  which  they  may  follow  blindly,  but 
it  is  to  make  them  "wise."  They  are  to  enter  into  and 
appropriate  the  substance  of  the  command.  The  specific 
precept  is  the  means  of  introducing  the  simple  and  earnest 
obeyer  to  a  broad  principle  that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  it.  Thus 
in  no  narrow  and  slavish  spirit,  but  as  one  who  of  himself 
re-enacts  the  command,  he  is  enabled  to  resist  the  temptation 
of  the  Evil  One.  Only  thus  does  the  believer  use  the  Law 
"lawfully"  and  arrive  at  the  true  dignity  of  obedience.  It 
may  be  remarked  in  addition  that  the  "testimony  of  the 
Lord"  includes  not  only  the  ten  commandments,  but  what- 
ever of  direct  moral  precept  lies  scattered  through  the  Word, 


Hen*  jfteoerick  £a  Hue  ifting       S5 

as  also  the  "Law  of  the  Lord"  whatever  of  hope,  promise 
and  grace  is  found  in  the  whole  extent  of  revelation. 

Verse  8.  "The  statutes  are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart; 
the  commandment  of  Jehovah  is  pure,  enlightening  the  eyes." 

"Statutes"  is  explained  by  Alexander  and  Hengsten- 
berg  to  indicate  the  Law  as  that  which  appoints  work  to  be 
done;  "commandments"  as  rather  that  which  directs  actions. 
Statute  is  the  Law  of  God  as  an  imperative  command  con- 
sidered as  independent  of  any  reasons  given,  as  e.g.,  the 
command  of  Sabbath  keeping  on  the  7th  rather  than  on  the 
1  Oth  day.  The  charge  to  care  for  the  stranger,  to  care  for 
the  poor,  and  indeed  the  whole  round  of  duties  to  one's 
country  expressly  given  or  by  implication  in  the  Bible,  would 
come  under  the  head  of  "statute."  Wherever  our  course  of 
life  or  work  is  marked  out  by  God's  providence  as  inter- 
preted by  the  principles  of  his  law,  there  we  have  a  statute. 
Hard  and  terrible  are  the  works  sometimes  enjoined  by  God. 
The  "statutes  of  the  Lord"  marked  out  to  the  Israelites  in 
the  extermination  of  the  Canaanites.  That  was  a  statute 
which  Abraham  received  when  he  was  told  to  offer  up  Isaac. 
The  heart  does  not  always  rejoice  at  the  moment,  but  does 
sometimes  afterwards,  long  afterwards.  Still  there  is  that 
which  tends  to  lighten  even  dark  and  hard  duties;  they  are 
right.  While  as  a  general  fact  the  Lord's  employ  is  a  happy 
employ,  the  duties  which  he  enjoins  are  such  as  of  them- 
selves naturally  tend  to  promote  joy  in  the  heart.  This  is  to 
be  contrasted  with  the  work  of  the  world,  which  is  laborious, 
joyless,  and  then  cannnot  cheer  us  by  a  sense  of  its  being 
right. 

Under  the  head  of  "commandments"  come  whatever 
directly  or  indirectly  tends  to  guide  one's  course  of  action. 
There  are  points  to  which  man  comes  in  the  course  of  his  life 
where  he  is  perplexed  with  the  question,  "What  is  best?" 
The  question  is  puzzling  because  the  real  point  does  not  come 
out  clearly.  We  are  swayed  secretly  by  motives  that  we 
would  not  approve  of  if  we  were  aware  of  them.     Here  lies 


86  ^electeo  psalms  and  ^cmogtap&s; 

the  power  of  Satan  to  deceive  and  engage  a  Christian  in  a 
course  which  will  result  in  his  temporal  and  eternal  injury. 
Now  just  here,  when  he  is  doubting  what  to  do,  something 
in  God's  word,  either  directly  unveiling  the  sinful  or  selfish 
motives  that  lie  hid  in  his  heart  and  inclining  him  to  one 
course,  or  else  directing  something  that  he  would  not  be  able 
to  do  if  he  did  take  that  course,  suddenly  indicates  to  him 
the  path  that  God  would  have  him  take.  Well  is  the  com- 
mandment of  the  Lord  called  "pure"  with  reference  to  this, 
its  office  as  guide.  It  is  simple  and  single,  and  comes  to  a 
man  who  is  confused  by  complexities  of  thought  and  feeling 
and  afflicted  with  the  saddest  of  sorrows — doubt,  with  a 
purifying  and  unifying  power  that  directs  him  what  to  do, 
where  to  go,  and  enlightens  his  eyes.  This  last  expression 
refers  not  so  much  to  knowledge  as  to  feeling,  to  the  good 
cheer  and  careless  ease  of  a  mind  relieved  from  the  harrow 
ing  torture  of  doubt  by  feeling  the  guiding  hand  of  God. 

Verse  9.  "The  fear  of  Jehovah  is  clear,  standing  for- 
ever; the  judgments  are  truth,  they  are  righteous  altogether." 

"The  fear  of  the  Lord"  is  understood  by  most  com- 
mentators as  a  title  of  the  Law — the  moral  effect  wrought 
by  the  Law  put  by  metonymy  for  the  Law  itself.  It  may  be 
so,  but  the  trope  would  be  a  strained  one,  and  there  is  no 
need  of  keeping  up  the  exact  form  of  the  other  verses.  Lyric 
poetry  should  have  great  freedom.  I  should  prefer  therefore 
to  interpret  it  in  its  plain,  literal  sense.  And  this  sense  has  this 
advantage:  it  introduces  a  new  office  of  the  Law  and  Work 
of  God.  It  not  only  shows  the  way  of  salvation  and  reveals 
what  is  morally  right  and  wrong  (verse  7),  but  prescribes 
one's  duties  and  directs  one's  path  (verse  8),  and  is  the 
means  of  revealing  one  to  us  whose  character  is  for  us  a 
higher  and  better  law  than  any  that  can  be  written.  A  child 
who  is  well  acquainted  with  its  mother  need  not  have  given 
it  by  the  mother  a  great  number  of  specific  directions  to  enable 
it  to  do  what  the  mother  would  have  it  do.  It  will  at  once 
know  what  would  please  or  displease  its  mother.     So  the 


Eetn  jFreOetick  La  iEue  Mm       87 

man  who  knows  God — and  we  have  that  within  us  naturally 
that  helps  us  to  know  Him — who  is  filled  besides  with  awe 
and  reverence  and  lives  as  in  His  presence,  will  have  a  lav/ 
which  furnishes  not  only  the  precept  but  the  impulse  to  obed- 
ience. When  a  man  lifts  his  eyes  in  love  and  reverence  to  a 
God  whose  character  he  understands,  the  pharisaism  that 
would  interpret  the  written  law  so  as  to  make  its  commands 
as  narrow  as  possible  and  obedience  as  little  as  possible, 
vanishes,  and  another  spirit  takes  its  place.  He  feels  that 
he  cannot  be  too  pure  and  holy.  He  feels  that  all  that  God 
himself  is,  that  he  commands  him  to  be.  "Fear"  as  used 
with  reference  to  God  is  not  timidity,  but  is  compounded 
of  dread  and  love,  and  is  tolerably  well  expressed  by  the 
word  "reverence."  It  abides  forever;  that  is,  a  Christian 
never  comes  to  the  time  when  he  can  trust  to  his  own  impulse 
and  spiritual  light.  He  is  always  to  look  up  to  God  as  a  child 
to  a  father  and  King,  in  love,  and  yet  with  a  sense  of  His 
authority  and  dread  power.  This  is  necessary  to  ensure  his 
being  kept  clean,  and  it  will  be  effectual.  Perfect  love  will 
indeed  cast  out  all  fear  from  the  soul.  There  may  indeed  be 
no  consciousness  that  it  fears,  but  until  that  which  is  perfect 
is  come  and  our  fellowship  with  God  is  made  complete,  there 
will  be  a  need  of  that  grim  element  of  experience  latent  per- 
haps for  most  of  the  time,  but  still  ready  to  reappear  and  as- 
sert itself  when  there  is  occasion — sacred  fear. 

Now,  then,  what  is  more  calculated  to  nil  one  with  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  than  "the  judgments  of  the  Lord,"  His  judi- 
cial inflictions.  They  fill  with  dread,  not  only  becasue  they 
are  terrible,  but  also  because  they  are  just.  Also  in  God's 
judgments  is  manifested  His  love  to  His  people;  as,  for  in- 
stance, in  those  on  Pharaoh  and  the  Midianites.  So  that 
they  fill  His  people  with  that  union  of  dread  and  love  which 
is  true  "fear"  and  God's  best  praise. 

These  judgments  are  "true,"  i.e.,  according  to  the  facts 
of  the  case.  God  knows  all  the  facts  and  interprets  them 
fairly,  so  that  every  mouth  is  stopped  when  he  smites.     These 


88  ^>electe&  psalms  anD  ^onogtapljs 

judgments  are  of  two  sorts.  They  are  either  for  the  chastise- 
ment of  His  people,  or  for  the  destruction  of  His  enemies  and 
theirs.  God's  people  may,  from  what  has  happened  to 
themselves  or  other  Christians,  or  from  what  has  befallen 
the  ungodly,  draw  many  a  precept  and  monition.  These 
precepts  may  be  called  "judgments,"  and  indeed  any  pre- 
cept of  the  law  may  be  called  a  judgment  in  view  of  the 
awful  sanctions  with  which  it  is  enforced. 

Verse  1  0.  "(Judgments)  more  to  be  desired  than  gold 
and  much  fine  gold,  and  sweeter  than  honey  and  the  drop- 
ping of  the  combs." 

These  judgments  are  to  us  precious  and  pleasant  be- 
cause they  reveal  to  us  God's  will,  than  to  know  which  noth- 
ing is  more  profitable  to  one  who  looks  at  his  own  interest, 
nor  more  pleasant  to  one  who  loves  his  Heavenly  Father. 
Besides,  they  train  the  Christian  for  Glory,  and,  though 
"grievous"  at  first,  yet  "afterwards"  they  are  so  different. 
It  is  also  true  that  through  His  Judgments  God  has  endowed 
His  people.  The  nations  of  Canaan  were  destroyed  that 
Israel  might  enter  into  their  possessions,  and  Israel  was  cast 
off  that  (Rom.  X:  28-30)  the  Christian  Church  might  in- 
herit the  promise  to  Abraham.  Thus  at  one  blow  God  some- 
times delivers  and  enriches  His  people. 

Verse  1  1 .  "Morever,  thy  servant  is  enlightened  by 
them;  in  keeping  them  there  is  much  reward." 

But  there  is  something  of  dread  and  terror  in  these 
judgments  over  and  above  what  is  pleasant.  If  the  godly 
man  trembles  at  every  word  of  God,  how  much  more  at  His 
judgments.  When  they  come  upon  others  it  is  to  him  as  if  a 
trumpet  blew  to  let  him  know  that  peril  to  himself  was  near. 
With  no  superciliousness  does  he  "behold  and  see  the  reward 
of  the  wicked."  He  feels  that  there  is  that  in  him  yet,  not- 
withstanding all  that  grace  has  done  for  him,  which  may  lead 
him  into  grievous  sins  involving  grievous  punishment.  And 
so  a  blessed  profit  comes  to  him  from  translating  every  judg- 
ment on  others  into  a  precept  addressed  to  ourselves.     See 


i&eto*  jfrcDerick  £a  Hue  $tfng       89 

the  words  of  the  Doctor  in  Macbeth:  "God  forgive  us  all," 
which  exhibits  him  in  penitential  sympathy  with  the  distress 
of  Lady  Macbeth. 

Verse  12.  "Errors  who  shall  understand?  Clear 
thou  me  from  hidden  ones." 

It  is  significant  that  the  word  in  the  preceding  verse 
translated  "warned"  means  primarily  "enlightened."  In 
Ez.  33-3,  the  duty  of  the  watchmen  is  to  "enlighten  with 
his  trumpet."  To  be  "warned"  we  must  not  merely  be 
impressed,  we  must  be  informed  of  that  which  we  are  ignor- 
ant of.  Sin  works  so  secretly  in  us  that  we  are  not  aware  of 
the  true  character  of  our  actions.  We  forget  to  judge  our- 
selves, or  else  we  are  partial  judges.  "The  heart  is  deceitful 
above  all  things  and  desperately  wicked,"  and  so  a  rude 
shock  is  sometimes  needed  to  let  us  know  where  we  are  and 
whither  we  are  going.  But  God's  judgments  effect  this,  and 
then  when  our  "secret  faults" — faults  hidden  even  from  our- 
selves— are  made  known  to  us,  vain  would  be  God's  warn- 
ings and  instructions  and  precepts  if  there  were  not  a  remedy 
found  in  expiation.  And  indeed, with  all  our  use  of  the  law 
and  the  judgments  of  God,  we  will  never  be  able  to  fathom 
the  depths  of  our  sins.  "If  our  hearts  condemn  us,"  we  may 
be  sure  that  He  who  is  greater  than  our  hearts  sees  much 
more  in  us  that  is  faulty  than  we  do  ourselves.  And  to  Him 
we  must  apply  to  cleanse  us — that  is,  to  acquit  us  judicially 
(for  such  is  the  meaning  of  the  word).  To  Him  must  we 
go,  confessing  the  sins  that  we  are  aware  of,  and  bearing  in 
ourselves  those  sins  that  are  hidden  even  from  ourselves,  and 
say,  "Purge  me  with  hyssop  and  I  shall  be  clean." 

Verse  1 3.  "Also  from  presumptuous  (ones)  with- 
hold thy  servant;  then  shall  I  be  perfect  and  clear  from  much 
transgression." 

Two  classes  of  sins  were  recognized  in  the  Mosaic  Law 
— sins  of  inadvertence,  and  deliberate,  wilful  sins,  here  called 
"presumptuous."  The  first  could  be  pardoned,  the  second 
never,  and  so  we  see  here,  only  for  sins  which  we  were  not 


90  Selected  psalms  and  ^onogtapfjs 

aware  were  sins,  could  pardon  be  implored.  As  to  the  other 
sins,  the  only  petition  is,  "hold  me  back  from  them,"  as  if 
that  was  the  only  hope.  The  dominion  of  presumptuous  sins 
over  one  refers  to  the  strong  and  seated  impulses  implied  by 
them  and  developed  by  them;  also  that  tyrannic  consciousness 
of  guilt  that  destroys  peace  and  paralyzes  all  effort.  "The 
great  transgression" — exactly  "great  or  much  transgression." 
Yet  perhaps  the  definite  article  expresses  what  was  in  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,  a  reference  to  that  great  sin  under  clear 
light,  which  even  under  the  Dispensation  of  Grace  cannot,  as 
we  are  told,  be  forgiven. 

Verse  1 4.  "Then  shall  be  for  acceptance — or  ac- 
ceptable— the  sayings  of  my  mouth,  and  the  thoughts  of 
my  heart  before  Thee,  Jehovah,  my  rock  and  my  redeemer." 

"Let  the  words" — better,  says  Alexander,  "Then 
shall  the  words."  Most  emphatically  better  when  we  con- 
sider the  context.  And  yet  how  humiliating  the  sense  is. 
It  is  then  only  as  forgiven  and  restrained  that  we  can  be 
acceptable  to  God.  Surely  there  is  not  much  room  here  for 
pride  or  self  complacency.  We  must  say  with  Madame 
Guyon,  "the  all  of  God  in  the  nothing  of  the  creature."  Only 
what  God  makes  can  He  accept. 

And  here  we  are  brought  to  a  remarkable  connection 
with  the  first  verse.  The  Heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  so  do  the  words  and  thoughts  of  the  renewed  soul.  God 
at  the  first  pronounced  good  the  works  of  creation,  of  which 
the  Heavens  is  the  splendid  representative,  and  now  here  is 
said  to  accept  the  words  and  thoughts  of  a  heart  cleansed 
and  restrained,  which  manifests  the  germ  (Rom.  X:  8-10) 
of  that  New  Creation,  which,  beginning  by  transforming  man 
morally  and  at  last  giving  him  a  glorified  body,  ends  by  trans- 
forming this  earth  and  changing  the  Heavens  themselves  into 
an  infinitely  grander  witness  to  the  Creator's  glory  than  they 
now  are;  making  "a  New  Heavens  and  a  New  Earth,  in 
which  dwelleth  righteousness." 


Eetn  jFteDerick  La  Hue  ding       91 

De  Quincey,  writing  on  the  knocking  on  the  gate  in 
Macbeth,  speaks  of  the  great  Shakespeare  in  the  following 
terms : — 

"O!  mighty  poet!  Thy  works  are  not  as  those  of  other 
men,  simply  and  merely  great  works  of  art;  but  they  are  also 
like  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  like  the  sun  and  the  sea,  the 
stars  and  the  flowers,  like  frost  and  snow,  rain  and  dew, 
hailstorms  and  thunder,  which  are  to  be  studied  with  entire 
submission  of  our  faculties  and  in  the  perfect  faith  that  in 
them  there  can  be  no  too  little  or  too  much,  nothing  useless 
or  inert,  but  that  the  further  we  press  in  our  discoveries  the 
more  we  shall  see  proof  of  design  and  self-supporting  arrange- 
ment where  the  careless  eye  had  seen  nothing  but  accident." 

Now  if  so  much  can  be  said  of  the  writings  of  the  great 
Shakespeare,  what  shall  be  said  of  Psalm  XIX  and  its  in- 
spired author? 


92  ^electeo  psalms  anD  ^onogtapjjs 


(The  following  cannot  pretend  to  be  more  than  a  gen- 
eral survey  of  the  intent  and  meaning  of  the  Psalm.  The 
scholar  may  miss  the  usual  comment  on  every  clause  of  every 
verse,  still  it  is  something  to  analyze  the  character  of  David's 
emotion,  as  throwing  light  on  the  greater  and  more  profound 
experience  of  "David's  Greater  Son,"  of  which  Psalm  22 
is  the  prophecy. — A.  B.  K.) 

This  magnificent  Psalm  begins  with  an  outcry  to  God 
from  a  soul  in  the  extremity  of  distress  and  danger,  extending 
from  verse  1  to  the  second  clause  of  verse  2 1 . 

Then  follows  a  resolution  to  praise,  and  call  to  praise, 
because  God  has  heard  and  answered  the  cry  to  Him, 
which  we  read  in  the  verses  reaching  from  the  second  clause 
of  verse  21  to  the  end  of  verse  25.  Then  follows  a  state- 
ment of  the  prospect  opened  to  believers  by  the  deliverance, 
extending  to  all  the  world  and  to  all  time. 

This  is  a  true  lyric  utterance ;  but  lyric  utterance  though 
impulsive,  is  not  purely  naive.  There  is  something  self-con- 
scious about  it.  A  moment's  thought  about  it  will  show 
us  that  David  was  not  possessed  by  the  emotions  expressed 
in  the  first  portion  of  this  psalm  at  the  time  he  composed  it. 

It  is  evident  that  when  he  commenced  to  write,  he  was 
filled  with  deep  gratitude,  unbounded  hope,  and  exattic 
praise.  The  passage  from  verse  first  to  the  first  clause  of 
verse  21  records  a  past  experience,  and  thus  has  a  journal- 
istic character,  often  to  be  met  with  in  the  Psalter. 

A  prose  arrangement  would  commence  with  the  sec- 
ond clause  of  verse  2 1 .  The  fact  of  deliverance  was  a  call 
to  praise,  because  when  the  sufferer  cried  unto  Him  "My 
God,  my  God  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me,"  and  so  on  down 
to  the  second  clause  of  verse  21 , — "He  heard."  Then  fol- 
lows the  rest  of  the  psalm.  By  this  arrangement  the  psalm 
would  lose  nothing  of  its  significance,  but  much  of  its  energy 


Eeu*  jFreDetick  Ha  Hue  ifting       93 

and  poetic  beauty.  There  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that  this 
psalm  was  written  by  David,  as  its  title  imports,  but  it  would 
be  vain  to  attempt  to  ascertain  what  circumstances  in  David's 
experience  gave  rise  to  it.  If  we  did  it  would  not  help  us  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  psalm.  The  circumstances  that  sug- 
gest a  piece  of  poetry  are  like  the  bits  of  glass  in  a  kaleido- 
scope to  the  beautiful  figure  that  results.  The  poet  re- 
combines,  makes  great,  exalts  and  transfigures,  so  that  in  the 
composition  we  find  often  no  more  than  a  trace  of  that  which 
suggested  the  poetry.  For  example,  little  help  is  given  to- 
wards understanding  the  song  of  the  "Three  Fishers"  to 
know  that  Kingsley  composed  it  in  the  deep  depression  and 
pain  that  fitted  him,  upon  the  Bishop  of  London  forbidding 
him  to  preach  in  his  diocese.  Much  more  is  this  the  case, 
when  not  only  poetic  feeling,  but  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  causes  some  painful  trial  of  David  to  bring  before  his 
exalted  imagination  an  other  sufferer,  an  other  scene,  a  great- 
er conflict  and  a  greater  victory. 

It  needs  no  close  examination  of  this  psalm  to  see  that 
David  could  not  have  been  speaking  of  himself,  when  he 
superscribed  this  psalm  "To  the  Chief  of  Musicians."  In 
the  first  clause  we  have  fully  set  forth  the  pain  and  peril  that 
afflict  the  sufferer,  together  with  the  struggle  of  faith  to  keep 
fast  hold  of  God,  and  to  realize  His  presence,  faithfulness  and 
tender,  enduring  sympathy  with  all  our  needs. 

In  verse  1 ,  there  is  not  merely  apprehension  but  actual 
loss.  God  has  forsaken  him  but  not  utterly.  The  sufferer's 
state  is  not  one  of  blank  despair.  He  can  yet  prefer  the 
mighty  claim,  "My  God,  my  God."  He  can  also  ask, 
"Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me?"  He  has  a  good  conscience. 
Many  of  us  who  suffer  from  God's  absence  have  no  reason 
for  wondering.  We  know  well  that  it  is  for  good  cause,  and 
our  own  fault.  All  desertions  are  of  this  character.  God 
stood  aloof  from  Job,  but  it  was  not  for  Job's  fault,  and  to 
many  servants  of  God  since  the  time  of  Job,  their  trials  have 
not  only  been  painful,  but  incomprehensible. 


94  Selected  psalms  and  apnogcapfja 

What  astonishes  us  in  the  case  of  Our  Lord,  is  that  He 
should  wonder  at  what  had  come  upon  Him  when  He  had 
looked  forward  to  it  so  long  with  dread  and  shrinking.  It 
adds  to  our  impression  of  the  exceeding  awiulness  of  Christ's 
death,  depth  within  depth, — that  when  He  drew  near  to  do 
that  He  came  to  earth  to  do,  and  of  which  He  knew  enough 
to  be  dismayed  at  the  prospect,  as  He  entered  on  the  agony 
of  Gethsemine,  we  are  told  "that  He  began  to  be  greatly 
amazed."  Then  the  renewed  astonishment  of  the  cross, 
"Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me." 


Eeth  jFreDerick  Ha  Iftue  ifttng       95 


$£alm  36. 


To  be  a  true  creator  God  must  defend  and  provide  for 
all  who  put  their  trust  in  Him. 

Verse  I.  "Thus  saith  depravity  to  the  wicked  (one) 
in  the  midst  of  my  heart,  there  is  no  fear  of  God  before  his 
eyes."  In  the  preceding  psalm  the  wicked  one  was  so  power- 
ful and  threatening  to  the  psalmist  that  he  can  but  call 
upon  God  to  crush  him.  In  this  psalm  the  sinner  is  contem- 
plated with  a  kind  of  horror  of  surprise  at  his  perilous  audac- 
ity in  sinning.  The  psalmist  wishes  to  say  that  he  notices  with 
astonishment  that  continued  impunity  in  transgression  en- 
courages the  wicked  man  to  feel  that  he  is  in  no  danger  at 
all  from  God.  The  whole  verse  might  be  paraphrased  thus: 
"See  what  transgression  says  to  the  sinner — there  is  no  fear 
of  God  before  his  eyes."  Or  thus:  "There  is  no  fear  of  God 
before  the  eyes  of  the  wicked  one;  this  is  what  transgression 
says  to  him."  As  we  would  say  of  a  demagogue,  "he  does 
not  fear  being  brought  to  justice — that  is  what  his  political 
influence  says  to  him." 

Verse  2.  "For  it  has  flattered  him  in  his  own  eyes  in 
order  that  his  iniquity  may  be  made  manifest  and  hated" — 
literally,  "to  the  finding  of  his  iniquity  and  to  the  hating." 
The  words  translated  "the  finding"  and  "the  hating"  are 
prepositions  and  the  use  of  "to"  before  an  infinitive  to  indicate 
a  purpose  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Song  of  Solomon  5  :5 ,  Gen. 
1:1 4,  Ex.  20:8,  etc.  The  meaning  is  this — his  self  flattery 
causes  him  to  act  out  his  evil  nature  without  restraint,  and  so 
to  make  it  manifest  and  hateful  in  the  eyes  of  God  and  man. 

Verses  3  and  4.  "The  words  of  his  mouth  are  false- 
hood and  fraud,  he  has  ceased  to  act  wisely,  to  do  well.  He 
will  meditate  falsehood  upon  his  bed,  he  will  take  his  stand 
upon  a  way  not  good,  evil  he  will  not  abjure."  Each  of 
these  clauses  sets  forth  a  specification  of  the  depth  of  depravity 


96  ^electeD  psalms  anD  ^onograp&g 

into  which  the  man  has  fallen.  His  speech  is  treacherous, 
he  has  given  up  trying  to  compound  for  evil  acts  by  good 
ones,  he  deliberately  plans  treachery  and  as  deliberately  sets 
about  executing  it,  he  makes  not  the  slightest  pretense  of  hat- 
ing evil,  he  approves  openly  of  evil.  This  last  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  climax  of  corruption,  public  approval  of  evil 
(see  Rom.  1  :32),  and  suggests  the  idea  that  by  the  word 
wicked  is  meant  a  wicked  community  with  a  wicked  public 
opinion. 

Verses  5  and  6.  The  psalmist  now  turns  away  to 
contemplate  the  all-embracing  and  good  providence  of  God; 
not  for  the  purpose  of  contrast  (as  Alexander),  but  to  ex- 
hibit the  amazing  folly,  as  he  had  before  shown  the  amazing 
corruption,  of  the  sinner.  "O  Jehovah,  thy  loving-kindness  is 
in  the  heavens,  and  thy  faithfulness  unto  the  clouds."  The 
second  clause  is  significant.  The  children  of  Israel  in  rain- 
less Egypt  were  specially  promised  a  land  watered  by  the  rain 
of  heaven."  Thy  righteousness  is  like  the  mighty  mountains; 
thy  judgments  are  a  great  deep.  Oh  Jehovah,  Thou  wilt 
save  man  and  beast."  The  images  are  all  connected  together 
— 1st,  the  heavens;  2nd,  their  clouds;  3rd,  the  hills  reaching 
the  clouds,  and  enclosing  and  bounding  and  defending  like 
the  wall  of  a  house,  and  4th,  the  sea  beneath,  make,  as  it 
were,  a  complete  envelopment  of  man  and  beast  in  which 
they  always  are.  So  is  God  above  and  beneath,  and  so  the 
danger  to  the  wicked  must  be  imminent,  notwithstanding 
he  flatters  himself.  The  parallelism  seems  to  be  used  to 
draw  special  attention  to  the  clouds  as  sources  of  water,  the 
most  valuable  natural  thing,  and  the  supply  of  which  is 
universally  recognized  as  dependent  upon  God.  The  provi- 
dential care  of  God  seems  to  be  shown  in  the  details  of  the 
ministering  of  water  to  man.  Clouds,  the  mountains  that 
form  and  gather  them,  together  with  their  slopes  that  move 
forward  the  water  to  man,  the  deep  that  receives  all  the 
streams  and  gives  all  back  again,  the  shower,  the  river  (v.  8), 
the  fountain,  and  last  of  all  the  sun  (v.  9),  the  motive  power 


i&eth  jFteDerick  JLa  Iftue  Ifting       97 

of  the  whole,  that  turns  the  great  water-wheel  of  Nature. 
The  whole  frame  of  Nature  is  considered  as  a  combination 
for  the  purpose  of  ministering  water  to  man,  as,  indeed,  it  is. 
And  forceful  is  the  conclusion  that  if  God  has  made  all  nature 
an  alembic  for  furnishing  water  to  man  and  beast,  He  will 
surely  take  care  of  them  in  every  other  respect.  The  ex- 
pression "great  deep"  will  not  correspond  to  anything  but 
the  mighty  ocean,  and  makes  the  ocean  one  of  God's  min- 
istering servants.  The  figure  is  intended  to  comprehend  the 
whole  realm  of  Nature,  and  there  is  a  great  beauty  in  liken- 
ing God's  judgments  to  the  great  deep,  for  God's  judgments 
are  logically  the  last  result  of  His  "loving-kindness,"  "His 
faithfulness,"  and  His  justice;  and  all  events  tend  to  God's 
judgments  (or  final  settlements)  as  the  rivers  to  the  deep. 
And,  if  we  might  carry  the  figure  farther,  God's  endings 
are  always  beginnings — His  judgments  are  constructive,  as 
from  the  deep  returns  the  water  in  vapor.  For  to  the  poetic 
as  well  as  the  scientific  mind  the  deep  is  but 

" — an  outlet  of  the  sky 
Where  waiting  till  the  west  wind  blows 
The  freighted  clouds  at  anchor  lie." 

The  water  has  been  falling,  ever  falling,  even  as  we  are  dying, 
ever  dying,  and  now  it  finds  its  place  of  oblivion  and  death 
to  be  a  place  of  glorious  transformation  and  new  life.  Miss 
Newton,  when  writing  to  a  lady  whose  brother  was  buried  in 
the  sea,  says:  "I  can  only  think  of  him  as  buried  in  the 
infinite  ocean  of  God's  love." 

"Thou  wilt  save  man  and  beast."  Here  again,  as  in 
Ps.  33:6,  the  psalmist  consoles  himself  from  God's  relation 
to  him  as  creator.  (Ecclesiastes  1  :7.).  The  very  perspective  of 
the  cloud  region  would  teach  them  this  truth.  (IKings  1  8:44) 
— "out  of  the  sea."  It  would,  however,  be  plain  that  the  sea 
was  the  source  of  the  rain  clouds  ever  borne  from  it  inland. 
This  vast  incomprehensible  deep  of  the  ocean  thus  is  inter- 
preted by  the  showers.      So  are  God's  judgments.      How 


98  Selected  P0alm$  ano  ®onogtapf)$ 

splendidly  "man  and  beast"  fits  the  great  figure.  It  is  a 
picture  of  the  universe  under  the  aspect  presented  in  Pales- 
tine, for  the  sky  and  clouds  are  over  all  and  the  hills,  counting 
the  slopes,  with  lake  or  sea  under  all ;  and  the  whole  ministers 
to  man  and  beast.  So,  like  the  Syrophoenician  woman, 
David  thinks  that  even  if  he  has  only  the  portion  of  a  beast, 
he  will  experience  God's  truth  and  mercy. 

Verse  7.  "How  precious  thy  loving-kindness,  O  God, 
therefore  the  sons  of  men  may  take  refuge  in  the  shadow  of 
thy  wings."  Alexander  translates  above  "mercy"  instead  of 
"loving-kindness;"  but  though  it  would  yield  a  rich  meaning, 
it  has  in  it  a  distinct  implication  of  ill-desert  which  does  not 
seem  necessarily  a  part  of  the  Hebrew  word.  Besides, 
"loving-kindness"  makes  the  parallelism  more  complete.  The 
affection  of  God  for  His  people  is  made  something  instinctive 
— a  necessary  part  of  His  nature,  like  the  animal  affection 
(or  (JToyjjfi)  of  the  hen  that  gathers  her  chickens  under  her 
wings  (see  Matt.  23:37).  And  this  is  involved  in  the  very 
name  that  all  believers  may  call  themselves.  They  are  God's 
children,  and  have  more  than  His  promise  to  rely  on,  even 
His  natural  yearnings,  expressed  in  the  quaint  language  of 
the  old  time  by  the  words  "bowels  of  mercies."  But  if 
believers  would  endue  themselves  with  the  lofty  views  of 
this  psalm,  they  must  not  merely  rely  upon  God  the  Father 
in  His  person  as  abstracted  from  Nature,  but  upon  Nature  as 
God's  ministering  hand,  and  in  all  that  is  pleasing  to  the  mind 
or  refreshing  to  the  body  must  recognize  His  presence  and 
tenderness.  I  remember  to  have  had  a  sense  of  this  in  nature, 
when  once  returning  to  my  room  tired  and  after  absence,  I 
lay  down  upon  my  bed  in  the  afternoon  of  a  summer's  day 
with  the  light  flung  from  the  sparkling  bay  and  the  flashing 
corn  leaves  filling  the  room,  and  the  green  branches  of 
cherry  trees  tapping  against  the  window  in  the  gentle  breeze; 
it  seemed  as  I  was  lying  down  in  a  father's  arms.  Such  a  feel- 
ing ought  to  be  constant,  for  on  this  earth  beauty  and  plea- 
sure are  the  rule,  deformity  and  pain  the  exception,  and  in  the 


Eefcu  jfteDcrick  La  iftue  ffitfng       99 

shadow  of  God's  wings  we  may  always  trust  even  when  they 
are  the  wings  of  the  wildest  wind. 

Verse  8.  "They  shall  be  drenched  with  the  abundance 
of  thy  house;  thou  wilt  give  them  to  drink  of  the  stream  of 
thy  pleasures,"  literally  "the  stream  of  thy  Eden."  The 
word  translated  "drenched"  means  literally  "to  drink  large- 
ly;" it  is  used  in  the  secondary  sense  "to  be  satisfied,"  as  in 
our  version,  but  generally  means  "to  be  bathed,  flooded,  or 
drenched,"  e.g.,  by  tears.  In  Isaiah  55:10  and  Psalm 
65  : 1 0,  it  is  used  of  rain,  and  one  cannot  resist  the  impression 
the  figure  sketched  in  vv.  5  and  6  in  the  mention  of  the 
clouds  and  the  sea  is  carried  out  here  in  the  shower,  the 
stream  and  the  fountain;  and  that  the  dwelling  place  of  man 
and  beast  is  God's  house;  shut  in  as  it  is  by  sky,  clouds, 
hills  and  watery  plain — a  temple  lifted  up  by  God's  glory, 
the  sun.  The  drenching  by  rain  does  not  minister  directly 
to  man's  comfort  as  do  the  stream  and  the  fountain;  but, 
nevertheless,  the  indirect  ministry  is  so  associated  in  the  Bible 
that  it  is  very  proper  to  be  used  as  a  simile,  or  even  as  a 
metaphor,  "Thou  shalt  rain  upon  the  abundance  of  thy 
house." 

Verse  9.  "For  with  Thee  is  the  fountain  of  life" — 
the  ever-flowing  fountain;  "in  Thy  light  shall  we  see  light." 
This  verse  not  only  continues  the  figure,  but  justifies  it,  and 
reveals  its  spiritual  meaning.  "Thou,  O  God,  art  to  us  as 
the  streams  and  the  sun  to  man  and  beast."  That  the  sun 
is  here  alluded  to  is  manifest.  In  the  light  of  the  sun,  the 
psalmist  says,  we  see  the  light  that  comes  from  every  object 
in  Nature,  from  the  light  that  gleams  from  the  snowy  top  of 
Hermon  to  the  light  that  streams  from  the  beautiful  flowers. 
When  we  use  the  light  of  the  sun  we  should  say  to  ourselves, 
"the  light,"  and  treat  the  light  by  which  we  see  as  something 
divine,  thus  making  the  very  act  of  seeing  as  well  as  drink- 
ing a  laying  hold  of  God.  He  who  uses  Nature  thus  will, 
in  the  end,  go  farther  than  the  recognition  of  God  as  a 
bountiful  and  beneficent  Creator;  he  will  see  in  Nature  more 


100  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpps 

than  the  sun  can  show  him,  and  the  world  of  thought  will 
be  through  the  divine  companionship  a  new  world  indeed. 
There  is  about  this  psalm  an  utter  repose;  God  is  very  near, 
near  as  Nature.  Nature  is  God's  dwellng,  God's  hand, 
God's  robe;  not  only  the  psalmist,  but  Nature,  seems  to  live 
and  move  and  have  its  being  in  God.  And  though  the  wick- 
ed enemy  is  as  threatening  and  dangerous  as  he  is  described 
in  the  preceding  psalm,  the  psalmist  rests  content  and  without 
anxiety. 

Verse  1  0.  Yet  though  David  enlarges  his  confidence 
by  a  consideration  of  God's  relation  to  him  as  Creator,  still  he 
does  not  rest  in  or  presmue  on  his  right  as  a  creature,  but 
prays  as  a  son.  And  in  this  he  shows  his  profound  piety. 
Jealous  will  God  be  of  everything  that  renders  unnecessary 
direct  face  to  face  intercourse  as  the  very  way  in  which  we 
depend  upon  God.  We  should  be  careful  not  to  depend 
upon  God  by  means  of  anything  in  Nature  unless  we  consider 
that  both  itself  and  our  enjoyment  of  it  are  at  God's  will,  and 
may  vanish  at  His  pleasure,  and  are  preserved  to  us  only  by 
His  wisdom  and  love.  Many  rest  for  their  security  in  church 
relation,  doctrine,  experience,  evidence,  use  of  sacraments — 
anything  but  dependence  on  God's  will.  Yet  all  these  yield 
no  growth  in  spiritual  life  unless  immediate  and  unceasing 
connection  with  God  is  maintained  through  His  blessed  Spirit 
by  which  otherwise  dead  forms  are  preserved  full  of  spiritual 
vitality  and  fruitage.  At  the  same  time  the  parallelism  be- 
tween loving-kindness  and  righteousness  must  be  noted.  They 
who  trust  in  God  have  a  covenant  claim  upon  His  justice. 

Verse  1  1 .  "Suffer  not  the  foot  of  pride  to  come  upon 
me,  and  let  not  the  hand  of  the  wicked  ones  expel  me."  There 
stands  the  wicked  menacing  an  approach  and  assault.  His 
pride  is  founded  upon  his  impunity  (v.  2).  The  psalmist 
asks  that  his  "foot"  may  be  kept  off,  that  is,  that  he  may  not 
be  suffered  to  come  to  him.  The  figure  of  Nature  as  God's 
house  is  carried  out  in  the  word  "expel"  or  "drive  out;"  it 
renders   absurd   the  attempt  to  drive  out,   while   that  very 


Eefch  jfredetick  La  iaue  Ifttng     lot 

poetic  absurdity  is  an  argument  with  God.  Faith  is  a  cry 
to  God  and  implies  some  uncertainty,  yet  it  ought  to  be  re- 
pose and  confidence.  The  folly  of  the  wicked  one  (vv.  1-4) 
is  apparent  to  the  righteous  fearer  of  God.  Yet  the  folly  of 
the  righteous  one  is  of  the  same  sort  as  that  of  the  wicked  if 
he  yields  to  the  temptation  to  think  that  God  careth  not  for 
him  in  love  as  much  as  He  careth  for  the  wicked  in  hate, 
though  He  bear  long  with  him. 

Verse  1  2.  The  repose  of  the  psalm  is  hardly  disturbed 
by  the  petition  that  the  proud  may  not  thrust  him  out  of 
God's  house,  for  quick  as  an  echo  comes  the  assurance  that 
they  have  failed.  "There  are  the  doers  of  iniquity  fallen,  they 
are  struck  down  and  cannot  rise."  "There"  where  they 
were  starting  to  come,  while  in  security  of  spirit  they  "medi- 
tated falsehood,"  they  are  struck  down.  There  is  something 
in  this  that  suggests  the  earthquake  so  common  in  Palestine. 
If  God's  house  is  loving-kindness  above  to  the  righteous,  it  is 
terror  and  destruction  beneath  to  the  wicked. 


102  Selected  Psalms  anD  e@onostapbs 


$galm  51. 


Title. — To  the  Chief  Musician,  A  Psalm  by  David,  When 

Nathan  the  Prophet  came  unto  him  as  he  had  come 

unto  Bathsheba. 

The  dedication  to  the  Chief  Musician,  making  it  the 
property  and  utterance  of  the  whole  church,  permits  us  to  give 
the  largest  significance  to  utterances  of  individual  penitence 
and  faith.  The  repetition  "came  unto,"  "had  come  unto," 
considered  by  some  to  be  careless  composition,  is,  according 
to  Alexander,  significant,  suggesting  "analogy,  proportion 
and  retaliation."  This  play  upon  words,  not  uncommon 
in  the  Psalms,  is  an  argument  for  the  authority  of  the  title 
and  authorship  of  David. 

This  psalm  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  lyrical  ebb 
and  flow.  Three  times  it  seems  to  be  brought  to  a  complete 
and  peaceful  close,  and  three  times  (at  verses  1 ,  9  and  1 4) 
does  it  begin  again  with  agonizing  petition,  "blot  out  my 
transgression,"  "hide  Thy  face  from  my  sins,"  "deliver  me 
from  blood  guiltiness."  These  seem  at  first  essentially  the 
same,  but  the  connection  makes  it  evident  that  the  first  asks 
deliverance  from  corruption,  the  second  from  the  wrath  of 
God,  and  the  third  from  guilt;  and  the  psalm  may  be  in  con- 
sequence divided  into  three  parts,  which  can  be  summed  up 
thus: 

Verses  1  -8.  Graciously  remove  the  corruption  which 
is  not  merely  within  me,  but  which  is  my  nature,  and  let  me 
find  comfort. 

Verses  9-13.  Be  not  angry  with  me,  make  me 
stable  and  active  in  all  goodness,  and  fill  me  with  joy. 

Verses  14-17.  Make  me  not  guilty  and  let  me  glorify 
Thee  by  praise. 

The  last  two  verses  conclude  the  whole  psalm  and 
make  plain  its  national  and  even  universal  significance. 


Eetn  jFreDeuck  La  Kue  &ing     103 

Verse  1 .  "Be  gracious  to  me,  oh  God,  according  to 
Thy  loving  kindness,  according  to  the  multitude  of  Thy  com- 
passions, blot  out  my  transgressions."  Conant  has  "great- 
ness" instead  of  multitude;"  Alexander  "abundance,"  ap- 
parently attempting  to  unite  the  two  meanings.  But  the  word 
more  properly  and  usually  means  multitude,  and  so  translated 
yields  a  good  sense.  We  have  here  the  psalmist  not  only 
appealing  to  God's  loving  kindness,  but  comforting  himself 
with  the  thought  of  the  great  number  and  variety  of  instances 
of  its  exercise  in  the  past.  God's  pecple,  though  they  may 
know  that  God  is  merciful,  need  to  be  impressed  with  the 
fact,  and  there  is  no  better  way  than  to  consider  the  multi- 
tudes upon  whom  He  has  had  mercy,  and  the  innumerable 
sins  of  every  kind  and  every  degree  of  enormity  that  He  has 
pardoned.  And  here  it  may  be  stated  that  throughout  this 
whole  psalm  there  is  no  petition  for  the  remission  of  any 
earthly  penalties.  The  prophet  Nathan  at  the  time  that  he 
came  to  him  told  him  that  the  Lord  had  remitted  all  penalty 
except  the  death  of  the  child  of  his  sin.  It  is  the  spiritual 
penalty  that  now  crushes  him,  the  degradation,  the  alienation 
from  God  and  the  guilt.  "Blot  out  my  transgressions,"  take 
away  my  transgressions.  This  might  mean  forgiveness,  justi- 
fication or  cleansing.  That  it  means  the  last  is  plain  from 
the  next  verse. 

Verse  2.  "Wash  me  thoroughly  from  my  iniquity  and 
cleanse  me  from  my  sin."  Remove  from  me,  he  asks,  the 
corruption  in  which  transgressions  take  their  rise.  It  might 
be  thought  that  a  soul  convicted  of  sin  would  first  think 
of  and  deprecate  the  wrath  of  God.  But  the  fact  is,  the 
soul  cannot  have  to  the  utmost  a  sense  of  the  wrath  of  God 
without  first  being  filled  with  that  utter  self-loathing  that  stops 
the  mouth  of  all  excuses  and  makes  the  man  acknowledge 
that  God's  wrath  is  just.  We  might  well  suppose  that  the 
thought  of  his  deep  corruption  would  rush  with  overwhelming 
force  upon  the  mind  of  David  the  moment  his  eyes  were 
opened  to  his  sin.     A  man  so  honored  by  God,  not  only  as 


104  Selected  psalms  ano  ©onogtapfjg 

a  deliverer  of  his  people  but  as  their  instructor  and  exemplar,  a 
man  so  morally  superior  to  those  around  him,  and  whose 
blameless  conduct  hitherto  would  naturally  tend  to  fill  him 
with  self-complacency  and  self-confidence — for  a  man  like 
that  to  have  such  foul  crimes  as  adultery  and  murder  brought 
home  to  him  and  to  be  made  to  feel  that  they  were  the  out- 
come of  a  corruption  of  nature  that  rendered  him  powerless  to 
do  right  in  the  future,  might  well  compel  him  in  horror  at  the 
revelation  of  his  character  and  terror  at  his  helplessness,  to  cry 
out,  "wash  me,"  "cleanse  me." 

Verse  3.  "For  I  know  my  transgressions  and  my  sin  is 
always  before  me."  Alexander  thinks  that  his  conviction  of  sin 
is  urged  as  constituting  a  claim  to  pardon,  because  it  is  an 
indication  of  God's  merciful  intention,  but  this  is  hardly  poet- 
ical. Such  complex  inferences  could  hardly  find  their  way 
into  an  outburst  of  lyrical  agony.  "For"  simply  introduces 
the  reason  why  he  makes  the  supplication  of  the  preceding 
verse.  It  is  perfectly  instinctive  and  lyrical.  How  natural 
would  it  be  for  a  man  to  cry,  "Help,  for  my  house  is  on  fire," 
or  "Help,  for  I  am  sinking."  This  view  is  strengthened 
when  we  consider  that  the  word  translated  "know"  has  often 
the  force  of  knowing  by  the  senses,  experiencing,  realizing. 
He  does  not  simply  recognize  his  transgressions ;  he  feels  what 
they  are,  and  this  very  agonizing  knowledge  is  not  of  the  past 
but  of  the  present.  Their  character  is  his  character.  "I 
know;"  that  is  the  same  as  saying,  "I  am  tortured."  "Wash 
me  thoroughly,"  etc.,  for  I  am  tortured  by  the  knowledge  of 
my  sin,  its  spiritual  effects.  The  "for"  marks  rather  why  he 
asks  than  why  he  should  be  heard;  and,  yet  it  is  possible, 
since  no  feeling  is  simple  and  single,  that  there  may  be  here 
a  plea  in  palliation.  "Whatever  I  am  now,  I  at  least  do  not 
insult  thee  by  self-complacency."  It  certainly  does  constitute 
a  palliation  and  a  condition  for  forgiveness  on  the  part  of 
God.  It  is  a  strange  proof  of  the  deceitfulness  of  the  human 
heart  that  David  could  have  been  deceived  for  one  moment 
with  reference  to  the  character  of  his  deed.     Possibly  he  was 


Hen*  jFceDericfc  La  Rue  ding     105 

aware  that  he  had  done  wrong,  but  excused  and  palliated  his 
act,  and  now  saw  his  sin  in  its  full  enormity.  He  may  have 
gone  so  far  as  to  justify  himself;  perhaps  on  the  ground  that 
Uriah  was  a  Hittite,  one  of  a  race  the  Israelites  were  com- 
manded to  destroy.  At  any  rate,  whatever  refuge  of  lies  he 
had  sought  shelter  in,  it  was  swept  away.  The  words  of  the 
verse  literally  are,  "For  my  transgressions  1  will  know,  and  my 
sin  will  be  before  me  always."  This  future  has  something 
touching  in  it.  It  seems  to  draw  a  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween the  past,  the  honored  past,  and  the  future.  As  if  he 
had  said,  "From  this  time  I  cannot  be  what  I  was.  A  de- 
grading remembrance  will  cling  to  me.  The  feeling  that  I 
have  is  as  permanent  as  my  life."  Is  there  not  significance 
also  in  the  emphatic  use  of  the  pronoun  "I,"  when  the  form 
of  the  verb  clearly  indicates  the  person?  I  know,  of  myself. 
Very  often  our  knowledge  of  our  sins  is  not  our  own.  We 
know  it  because  we  are  told  in  God's  Word  that  it  is  wrong. 
Or  our  acknowledgment  is  merely  a  submission  to  public 
opinion  or  a  dread  of  consequences  here  or  hereafter.  "My 
transgressions  I  know."  I  know  that  they  are  transgressions, 
I  know  their  enormity,  I  feel  their  full  significance  as  bringing 
to  view  the  corruption  in  which  they  have  their  origin.  It  is 
only  when  the  individual  sin  is  as  a  window  through  which  we 
see  the  depth  of  corruption  within,  that  there  is  true  penitence. 

The  plural  "transgressions"  may  be  significant.  The 
penitence  may  be  doubted  that  is  fascinated  and  completely 
occupied  with  a  single  wrong  act.  When  conviction  of  one 
sin  brings  many  other  sins  to  light,  then  indeed  the  convic- 
tion is  deep  for  a  man  begins  to  deal  with  more  than  an 
isolated  error,  even  with  the  source  of  error.  May  not  also 
the  singular  "sin"  in  the  parallelism  also  be  significant?  The 
knowledge  of  our  sins  is  not  complete  till  our  sins  exhibit  to  us 
our  sin,  our  sinfulness  of  heart. 

Verse  4.  "To  thee,  thee  only,  have  I  sinned,  and 
done  the  evil  in  thy  eyes,  to  the  intent  that  thou  mayest  be 
just  in  thy  speaking  and  be  clear  in  thy  judging." 


106  §>electeD  psalms  ann  ^onograpfjg 

"The  particle  at  the  beginning  denotes  general  relation," 
as  to  "respecting." "It  does  not  therefore  ex- 
plicitly substitute  God  for  man  as  the  injured  party."  (Alex- 
ander.) That  it  should  be  left  thus  vague  is  plain  from 
the  parallelism,  "done  this  evil  in  thy  sight,"  which,  what- 
ever else  it  means,  must  refer  to  the  view  God  takes  of  evil 
acts.  There  seems  to  be  a  double  meaning  in  both  branches 
of  the  parallelism.  "To  thee,  thee  only,  I  have  sinned." 
1  st,  I  have  done  against  Thee  alone  and  Thou  alone  didst  and 
dost  appreciate  it.  2nd,  It  was  not  concealed  from  Thee  and 
it  was  besides  done  in  Thy  very  presence.  It  seems  to  be 
plainly  intimated  here  that  David's  crime  was  in  a  certain 
sense  concealed.  Indeed  it  could  not  have  been  concealed 
had  it  been  regarded  at  court  as  a  revolting  crime.  It  was 
not  divulged,  it  was  not  bruited,  because  there  was  a  large 
tolerance  of  it.  Uriah  once  out  of  the  way,  probably  no 
great  attempt  was  made  to  keep  it  hid.  This  fact,  therefore, 
involves  the  people  in  David's  guilt  and  becomes  proper  in  a 
ritual  psalm.  Uriah's  murder,  the  people  of  the  capital,  at 
least,  would  have  been  willing  to  condone.  Indeed,  people 
generally  would  not  have  been  much  displeased  with  an  act 
that  was  so  like  the  ways  of  heroic  and  despotic  kings  about 
them  and  whom  they  would  be  pleased  to  have  David 
imitate.  Strict  living  on  David's  part  would  be  a  witness  to 
God's  claims  that  would  be  a  weight  of  bondage  upon  those 
of  Israel,  to  whom  there  must  have  been  much  temptation  in 
the  licentious  religion  and  manners  of  the  nations  about  them. 
People  then  were  not  very  different  from  what  they  are  now- 
adays. It  may  also  be  said  that  these  sins  of  David  would  be 
looked  upon  with  complacency  by  nobles  because  it  in  some 
measure  took  the  bridle  off  their  necks.  A  despotic  king 
makes  despotic  nobles;  license  on  his  part  involves  license 
on  theirs.  But  it  is  perfectly  manifest  from  the  form  "to 
Thee"  that  more  is  meant  than  that  God  alone  appreciated 
the  sin.  The  very  reason  why  He  alone  appreciates  it  is  be- 
cause it  is  committed  alone  against  Himself.      David's  act 


Beih  jfre&erick  JLa  Hue  Utfng     107 

could  be  called  by  many  bad  names;  it  was  a  selfish,  treach- 
erous, cruel  crime.  It  injured  a  valiant  friend  and  loyal 
servant  in  the  most  dreadful  way,  and  he  tried  to  hide  all 
by  his  murder.  The  deed  was  one  of  many  sided  evil.  But 
there  was  one  aspect  of  it  under  which  it  affected  one  alone. 
It  was  against  the  holy  will  of  God.  David  could  not  prac- 
tice against  God  as  he  could  against  Uriah  the  Hittite.  One 
thing  alone  he  was  competent  to  do;  he  could  do  what  God 
did  not  want  to  be  done,  what  his  holy  nature  revolted 
from ;  in  other  words,  he  could  sin.  He  had  sinned.  Every- 
thing evil  in  his  deed  summed  itself  up  into  a  focus  in  that. 
"Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I  sinned."  The  expression 
of  the  preceding  verse,  "For  my  transgressions  I  know," 
finds  its  full  significance  here.  This  is  what  he  knew  about 
his  transgressions,  not  merely  that  they  were  transgressions 
against  God.  There  is  more  here  than  the  feeling  that  he 
had  broken  God's  law.  He  had  struck  at  more  than  that,  at 
God  himself.  Conviction  of  sin  not  only  finds  its  bitterest  pang 
but  attains  its  true  reality  only  when  it  arrives  at  this  con- 
sciousness. It  is  only  when  the  law  assumes  its  true  char- 
acter as  the  expression,  not  only  of  the  volition  of  God,  but 
of  His  whole  mind  and  heart.  An  enactment  of  the  King  of 
the  Universe  is  one  thing,  but  His  will  is  quite  another,  for 
it  is  Himself.  This  is  the  view  of  transgression  that  swallows 
up  every  other  and  makes  it  so  outrageous  and  incomprehens- 
ible in  the  case  of  one  who  bears  God's  image.  This  was 
the  agonizing  consciousness  referred  to  in  the  preceding  verse 
— "I  know  at  last  that  my  sin  is  against  Thee  alone."  The 
clause  does  not  mean,  my  act  against  Thee  alone,  but  "my 
sin."  David's  act  was  against  his  fellow;  no  act  can  be 
conceived  more  so.  No  doubt  David  was  troubled  and  re- 
morseful when  he  thought  of  the  injury  to  Uriah.  But  these 
merely  personal  feelings  could  have  no  place  in  a  psalm  ded- 
icated to  the  "Chief  Musician"  and  written  to  be  used  in  the 
public  worship  of  God.  Only  what  would  express  the  ex- 
perience of  all  should  be  introduced  into  such  a  psalm.     Our 


108  Selected  p$alms  an D©onogtap|)$ 

evil  actions  are  very  different  in  outside  appearance,  but  they 
are  alike  in  this,  they  are  directed  against  all  purity  and  holi- 
nes  summed  up  in  the  person  of  God.  And  so  this  ex- 
perience of  David's  could  be  made  that  of  every  worshipper. 
The  terrible  character  of  his  wrong-doing  revealed  to  David 
its  inner  character  of  opposition  to  God,  and  thus  helps 
every  one  to  discern  the  same  in  his  own  acts.  "I  have  done," 
he  says,  "something  that  Thou  alone  canst  appreciate,  which 
is  aimed  at  Thee  alone."  We  may  imagine  him  to  utter 
the  next  words  with  a  certain  terrible  surprise.  "To  the  in- 
tent;" there  was  a  purpose  to  be  answered  by  it  then.  "My 
intent  was  to  have  pleasure;  woefully  has  it  failed;  but  I  was 
serving  the  purpose  of  God  even  in  giving  way  to  my  guilty 
passion."  One  of  the  most  awful  revelations  at  the  last  will 
be  for  sinners  to  find,  not  merely  that  they  have  failed,  but 
that  they  have  ministered  to  the  success  of  that  against  which 
they  were  striving.  These  words,  "to  the  intent"  may  mere- 
ly indicate  that  it  served  the  purpose  mentioned  in  the  last 
clause.  It  may  mean  the  direct  design  of  God  and  that  full 
force  we  ought  to  give  it.  Perhaps  we  should  go  so  far  as  to 
make  David  say  that  he  sinned  in  order  that  God  should 
not  lie.  We  have  then  a  two-fold  meaning.  The  result  and 
purpose  was  that  God  was  just  in  judging,  and  the  result  and 
purpose  was  that  God  was  shown  to  be  just  in  judging.  The 
last  only  will  need  to  be  pressed.  How  did  the  fact  that  he 
sinned  against  God  alone  show  this?  Of  course  David  can- 
not be  speaking  of  this  single  judgment  of  God  on  his  crime. 
This  is  forbidden  by  the  poetic  and  ritual  character  of  the 
psalm;  and  indeed  it  is  somewhat  ridiculous  to  say,  "I  com- 
mitted this  sin  in  order  that  thou  might  accuse  me  of  it."  The 
fact  that  David's  sin  was  committed  against  God  alone 
would  prevent  a  clearing  of  sin  in  man's  sight  until  the  last 
great  judgment. 

The  last  clause  has  two  branches,  speaking  and  judg- 
ing, accusations  and  punishments,  all  God's  accusations 
against  man,  all  his  punitive  acts.  His  accusations  and  pun- 


Eefcn  JFreDericfe  La  Eue  ifting     100 

ishments  so  universal  that  they  assert  and  imply  the  utter 
depravity  of  man.  David  in  his  own  case  infers  it,  and  since 
this  was  to  be  used  in  public  worship  every  child  of  God 
ought  to  infer  it  from  the  character  of  the  sin  which  he  con- 
fesses. That  this  inference  is  that  he  is  utterly  sinful  is  shown 
by  the  next  verse.  How  could  this  be  inferred  simply  from 
the  fact  that  the  sin  was  against  God  alone?  It  cannot  be 
a  logical  inference,  but  a  spiritual.  Consider  what  the  judg- 
ment of  God  in  David's  case  was.  It  was  simply  that  his 
sin  was  as  bad  as  the  one  of  the  man  in  Nathan's  parable. 
It  was  no  objective  statement  on  the  part  of  God  then  that 
revealed  to  David  his  sinfulness.  Nathan's  visit  was  the 
mere  occasion  of  the  revelation.  Conviction  of  sin  such  as 
David  had  depends  upon  a  sight  of  God  such  as  He  is.  The 
act  of  David  was  so  heinous,  when  his  advantages  of  en- 
dowment, instruction  and  responsibility  as  a  prophet  and 
representative  of  the  Divine  Ruler  of  Israel,  that  great  em- 
phasis may  be  placed  upon  the  "I"  of  the  sentence.  The 
very  royal  and  theocratic  position  of  David  and  even  his 
being  sincerely  inclined  to  serve  God  makes  the  sin  more 
heinous.  This  is  the  force  of  "in  Thy  sight."  "Against 
Thee  have  I" — such  a  one  as  David — "sinned."  With 
everything  present  that  ought  to  prevent  sin,  that  it  is  which 
is  a  damning  proof  against  human  nature  itself.  The  pecu- 
liar enormity  of  my  sin  only  brands  the  whole  race  and  justi- 
fies all  that  God  has  ever  said  against  it  and  all  that  He  has 
ever  brought  upon  it  of  punishment.  If  a  David  can  sin 
in  this  way,  nobody  can  ever  hold  up  his  head.  There  is 
something  more  of  force  in  this  "to  the  intent"  which  is  rath- 
er hard  to  express  and  yet  which  seems  implied.  This  sin 
then  served  a  purpose.  It  was  not  simply  a  wild,  willful, 
irrational  thing.  There  was  a  certain  propriety  about  it.  All 
natural  things  must  manifest  their  nature.  There  is  a  pro- 
priety in  the  nettle  and  the  thistle,  for  they  are  the  outcome 
of  the  life  of  the  plants  from  which  they  spring.  It  is  proper 
that  the  rattlesnake  should  secrete  poison;  it  is  proper  for  the 


110  Selected  p$almg  an D@onograpi)0 

natural  man  to  sin.  The  language  of  toleration  is  sometimes 
the  most  terrible  of  accusations.  "To  which  also  they  were 
ordained."  And  as  we  tolerate  the  rolling  of  the  swine  in 
the  sty,  so  we  tolerate  the  evil  words  and  evil  acts  of  some 
men.  They  must  show  what  rules  and  reigns  in  them.  And 
when  we  go  further  and  speak  of  these  men  as  serving  a  pur- 
pose by  their  wickedness,  we  give  a  still  stronger  expression 
of  the  feeling  that  they  live  and  move  and  have  their  being  in 
sin.  There  is  something  about  this  way  in  which  the  psalmist 
speaks  of  his  sin  that  makes  it  very  strongly  expressive  of  his 
utter  helplessness  in  sin.  The  form  of  justifying  himself  effects 
a  stronger — the  very  strongest — expression  of  this  deep 
ground  of  his  sin.  I  do  serve  a  certain  purpose  in  the  econ- 
omy of  the  Universe,  and  as  each  created  thing  must  express 
the  principle  that  its  Creator  endowed  it  with,  so  must  I 
manifest  my  sin;  it  serves  a  useful  purpose.  It  manifests  my 
nature  and  thus  does  its  proper  office.  It  reveals  human  na- 
ture in  me  and  involves  my  nation  through  their  indifference 
to  my  sin,  in  that  sin  itself. 

Verse  5.  "Lo,  in  iniquity  was  I  born,  and  in  sin  did 
my  mother  conceive  me." 

That  the  interpretation  of  the  previous  verse  was 
correct  is  rendered  probable  by  the  fact  that  it  makes  a  per- 
fect connection  with  this.  God's  accusation  is  just.  Human 
nature  is  utterly  vile.  But  speaking  out  lyrically  from  his  own 
consciousness,  he  makes  the  matter  universal,  by  referring 
it  to  his  very  generation.  Deeper  and  deeper  goes  the  woe- 
ful song,  and  as  at  the  attainment  of  a  new  and  higher  knowl- 
edge, as  if  it  had  come  with  something  of  a  surprise  to  the 
mind,  he  cries,  "Lo!  in  iniquity  was  I  born."  The  stain  is 
not  merely  very  dark  and  very  deep,  but  worse  than  all  it 
comes  from  within.  You  cannot  remove  that  from  any  being, 
that  is  constantly  reproduced  from  the  very  principle  of  its  ex- 
istence. It  is  a  dreadful  thing  when  a  man  fully  recog- 
nizes the  fact  that  he  is  helpless  in  the  power  of  his  nature 
not  only  mighty  in  its  impulses,  but  unto  whose  manifestation 


I&etn  jFreDetick  La  i&ue  i&ing      m 

the  gaze  cannot  extend,  and  therefore  upon  which  his  will 
cannot  operate.  This  is  all  the  verse  states.  There  is  here  no 
scientific  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  original  sin.  The  ex- 
perience is  one  however  which  goes  to  prove  it.  In  this 
true  and  terrible  moment  he  feels  that  sin  is  not  something 
contracted,  but  is  a  perversion  of  his  nature  underlying  the 
will.  It  seems  impossible  for  David  to  express  the  corruption 
of  his  nature,  as  if  fearful  of  being  misunderstood  to  mean 
less  than  he  did.  It  is  remarkable  that  he  should  confess 
his  nature  to  be  so  corrupt  as  logically  to  seem  delivered  from 
responsibility,  and  yet  the  next  verse  shows  that  he  has  not 
lost  the  least  of  his  sense  of  responsibility. 

Verse  6.  "Lo!  truth  Thou  hast  desired  in  the  hidden 
part;  Thou  wilt  make  me  to  know  wisdom."  Lo!  again; 
wonder  of  wonders!  Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  under 
which  I  labour,  I  am  not  excused;  my  feelings,  my  acts,  nay 
the  very  root  of  my  life  must  be  holy.  In  this  verse  the  word 
"truth"  and  "wisdom"  are  used  where  we  would  expect 
purity  and  holiness.  Why  is  this,  if  not  to  suggest  that  the 
evil  of  his  nature  is  a  perversion;  that  as  a  sinner  he  is  untrue 
to  the  deeper  meaning  of  his  being,  as  well  as  not  really  ad- 
justed to  the  truth  of  things.  To  desire  truth  in  the  inward 
parts  is  not  to  desire  such  tendencies  in  the  man  as  shall 
prompt  to  truth-telling.  Truth  as  used  in  the  psalms  corrres- 
ponds  with  reality,  and  indeed  some  such  meaning  as  this  is 
required  to  correspond  with  "wisdom"  in  the  parallelism. 
We  can  imagine  David  to  say  this  with  something  of  a  gleam 
of  hope.  The  cosmogonies  of  the  East  use  strong  terms  like 
those  of  the  fifth  verse  in  speaking  of  the  birth  nature  of 
human  beings.  But  they  are  words  of  despair;  this  birth 
nature  constitutes  an  insurmountable  barrier.  As  the  animal 
must  remain  what  he  is,  as  the  eagle  can  never  crawl  nor  the 
serpent  fly,  so  the  birth  nature  of  a  man  cannot  be  transcend- 
ed. That  nature  is  according  to  the  truth  of  things.  "Bram" 
exacts  nothing  higher  than  their  nature  prompts  to  from  all 
that  come  from  him.     But  God  exacts  and  therefore  there  is 


112  ^electeD  psalms  an D^onograpJjs; 

hope.  Sin  is  not  one  pole  and  righteousness  another.  It  does 
not  fit  into  the  system  of  things;  it  is  a  lie.  In  the  inward 
parts  there  is  a  strife,  for  sin  wars  on  the  soul  and  that  sinful 
soul  wars  against  the  universal  whole.  Truth  can  not  mean 
"integrity"  or  "sincerity,"  for  whether  we  translate  in  the 
latter  part  vaguely  "inward"  or  secret  "parts,"  or  specifically 
"reins,"  the  reference  in  either  case  must  be  to  that  which  is 
below  the  consciousness.  A  still  stronger  argument  is  that  it 
would  destroy  all  connection  with  the  previous  verse,  which 
must  mean  that  what  is  beneath  and  before  consciousness  is 
sinful,  and  the  sixth  verse,  to  correspond  to  it,  must  mean 
that  God  demands  truth  in  just  that.  The  idea,  then,  of  the 
first  clause,  is  that  God  demands  that  the  root  of  life  shall 
be  adjusted  to  the  truth  of  things.  This  appalling  demand 
has  in  it  a  gleam  of  hope.  How  terrible  would  it  be  if  we 
had  a  God  who  was  tolerant  of  evil.  But  this  demand  on 
the  part  of  God  is  not  for  the  sake  of  the  actions  that  would 
result  from  the  cleansing  of  the  root  of  life;  He  wishes  it  for 
its  own  sake.  He  wishes  to  be  adjusted  to  our  inner  selves  in 
His  own  person.  He  desires,  not  results  apart  from  Himself, 
but  communion,  and  for  that  every  impulse  and  unconscious 
manifestation  must  be  pure  and  adjusted  to  Him.  This 
shows  the  impossibility  of  serving  God  by  effort  on  our  part. 
Even  if  the  consciousness  was  as  far  reaching  and  deep  as 
our  natures  and  the  will  potent  to  restrain  evil  acts  and  to 
force  to  good  acts  everywhere  and  at  all  times,  God  could 
not  commune  with  that  thing  so  tied  up.  The  will  and  con- 
sciousness would  in  that  case  merely  succeed  in  making  a 
machine  out  of  a  man.  And  besides,  what  motive  would 
such  a  creature  have  in  so  acting?  It  would  be  a  worse  hell 
than  any  that  could  be  threatened. 

Hope  begins  to  shine  in  the  latter  clause.  Out  of  the 
eater  has  come  forth  meat.  The  depths  of  the  loss  suggest 
the  everlasting  gain.  The  sway  of  sin  is  an  irresistible  nature 
before  the  conception  of  which  the  very  foundations  of 
morality  seem  about  to  vanish;  but  before  pantheistic  ease 


Heth  jFteOetick  &a  Eue  Mm     H3 

can  obtain,  comes  in  the  presence  of  an  exacting  God,  the 
moral  assumes  its  predominance  in  the  universe,  and  the  moral 
implies  the  possible,  and  here  is  hope.  More  than  a  prayer, 
the  clause  assumes  that  it  shall  be  as  God  wills,  and  gladly 
and  hopefully  turns  to  the  Great  Father  and  cleanser,  "Thou 
wilt." 

"Wisdom"  must  be  left  vague.  It  does  not  mean  di- 
vine illumination  (Alexander) ;  it  does  not  mean  conscious 
wisdom  of  any  sort.  This  is  shown  by  the  paradoxical  form 
of  the  statement.  He  is  to  be  made  to  know  wisdom  in  that 
part  which  is  hidden;  in  other  words,  to  know  that  which  is 
concealed  from  him.  The  wisdom  therefore  which  he  is  to 
be  made  to  know  is  instinctive  in  all  mental  latency  and  in- 
tuition. Moving  intelligently  to  the  attainment  of  the  aims  of 
the  soul,  as  the  stars  that  "rive  the  dark  by  private  rays," 
or  as  the  plants  which,  reaching  forth  in  the  impulse  of  their 
life,  gather  their  leaves  and  flowers  out  of  the  empty  air,  as 
the  sculptor  with  his  chisel,  the  painter  with  his  brush,  or  the 
musician  with  his  flying  touch,  "from  no  vain  or  shallow 
thought,"  but  from  the  deepest  movings  of  that  in  their  mind 
that  their  thought  cannot  fathom,  body  forth  forms  of  eternal 
beauty. 

Verse  7.  "Thou  wilt  purge  me  with  hyssop  and  I  shall 
be  clean;  Thou  wilt  wash  me  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than 
snow." 

There  is  here  not  so  much  a  petition  as  a  confident  put- 
ting upon  God  of  the  great  work.  The  very  strictness  and 
greatness  of  the  exaction  in  the  preceding  verse  hints  at  a 
remedy.  But  in  the  symbolic  rites  of  the  Mosaic  cult  there 
is  a  clearer  and  more  direct  indication.  The  shame  and  im- 
purity associated  with  the  idea  of  death  and  leprosy  would 
seem  to  imply  that  God  exacted  immortality  and  perfect 
health  in  the  man,  as  well  as  perfect  purity.  The  implication 
of  blame  with  reference  to  death  and  disease  is  an  implication 
of  deliverance  from  these,  that  one  may  deliver  himself. 
Perfect  purity  implies  perfect  health  and  immortality.     How 


1X4  ^electeD  psalms  ano  ^onograpfjs 

proper  to  use  forms  under  which  Grace  asserts  its  farthest 
reaching  powers  (since  death  is  the  last  enemy)  to  express 
the  power  of  Grace  over  sin  under  its  aspect  of  an  irresistable 
nature.  This  verse  is  an  illustration  of  the  pebble-like  form  of 
the  verses  in  the  psalms.  Though  this  is  not  a  characteristic 
of  the  psalms  alone,  but  of  all  lyric  poetry.  The  song  pro- 
ceeds by  leaps,  as  a  true  spire  ought  to  rise  in  the  air.  Verse 
is  not  logically  connected  with  verse,  at  least  not  with  any 
directness.  There  is  a  continual  and  startling  change  just  here 
in  the  psalm.  Verse  4  is  all  on  the  moral  plane,  when  sud- 
denly in  verse  5  the  corrupt  nature  is  described  in  terms  that 
seem  to  destroy  all  responsibility;  then  instantly  a  change  is 
made  in  verse  6  to  (not  purity)  but  the  truth  and  wisdom 
that  God  exacts  of  that  nature,  and  then  in  this  verse,  instead 
of  appealing  to  those  symbolic  rites  in  which  Grace  under 
the  old  covenant  gave  the  clearest  comfort  to  the  sinner,  to  the 
holocaust,  to  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  the  Paschal  Lamb, 
to  the  goat  of  the  Day  of  Atonement  chosen  by  lot  to  bear 
away  the  sins  of  the  people,  instead  of  referring  to  some 
symbolic  rite  which  had  directly  to  do  with  sin,  he  calls  up 
one  which  had  to  do  only  with  that  which  was  but  a  symbol 
because  it  was  a  result  of  sin,  death  and  disease.  There 
seems  to  be  a  glance  here  at  the  wideness  and  far-reaching 
character  of  the  remedy  needed  for  the  redmption  of  man,  a 
remedy  that  respects  the  body  of  man  as  well  as  his  moral 
relation  to  God  and  reaches  even  to  the  nature  of  things,  a 
cosmic  redemption.  Birth  iniquity  (verse  4),  of  which  truth 
and  wisdom  is  exacted,  is  met  by  a  symbolic  promise  of  de- 
liverance from  the  uncleanness  of  disease  and  death.  If  we 
consider  it,  it  has  great  poetic  force.  A  glance  at  a  symbol 
that  goes  to  the  very  root  of  body  life  and  at  the  same  time 
asserts  its  connection  with  sin  is  one  calculated  to  reassure  the 
sinner,  even  when  he  views  himself  as  but  a  bubble  on  the 
mighty  tide  of  his  corrupt  nature.  From  the  fact  that  the 
word  translated  "purge"  is  a  derivation  of  that  meaning  "to 
sin,"  Alexander  infers  that  it  denotes  specifically  purification 


Eetn  jFreDerick  fta  Iftue  Ifting     U5 

from  the  stain  of  sin.  But  it  may  be  that  the  meanings  "to 
sin"  and  "to  purge"  come  from  a  root  meaning  "to  take 
away  from;"  and,  at  any  rate,  the  word  is  used  for  mere 
ritual  purifications,  as  e.  g.,  the  cleansing  of  a  house.  The 
meaning  here,  therefore,  is,  thou  wilt  work  upon  me  all  that 
spiritual  work  denoted  by  the  sprinkling.  "Moll"  notices 
how  here  the  Mosaic  standpoint  is  broken  through.  The 
hyssop  is  put  into  God's  hands  not  the  hands  of  the  priest. 
The  "foolishness"  of  symbolical  cleansing  points  away  to 
Him  who  alone  can  give  efficacy  to  the  rite. 

"And  I  shall  be  clean;"  not  clean  of  course  from  cere- 
monial defilement,  but  clean  in  all  impulse,  down  to  the  very 
germ  of  life.  The  mode  of  the  cleansing,  the  very  incongruity 
between  aspersion  with  hyssop  and  a  cleansing  of  the  life  of 
the  soul,  shows  this  cleansing  to  be  the  act  of  God  and 
exhibits  the  profound  view  of  God's  power  and  His  vital  re- 
lation to  His  people  that  David  was  enabled  to  exercise.  We 
apppeared  to  have  left  the  plane  of  morality  and  freedom 
in  the  description  of  sin  irrresistible ;  here  we  seem  to  leave 
the  plane  of  morality  and  freedom  in  the  description  of  the 
irresistible  remedy.  The  deeper  view  of  sin  always  results  in 
this.  He  who  of  all  the  fathers,  knew  most  about  sin,  spake 
most  about  irresistible  grace.  And  here,  David  in  this  psalm, 
which  more  than  any  other  part  of  Scripture,  exhibits  the 
power  of  sin,  sets  forth  the  power  of  God  to  deliver  from  it. 
In  the  agony  of  an  almost  unparalleled  experience,  he  looks 
for  release,  not  to  any  effort  of  his  own,  not  to  a  long  and 
persistent  building  up  of  the  character  in  strength  and  purity, 
and  growing  thus  gaining  freedom,  but  from  a  work  of  God 
on  him,  presented,  as  far  as  poetry  can  present  anything,  as 
instantaneous.  "Sprinkle  and  then  at  once  I  shall  be  clean." 
Not  a  moment  intervenes  between  the  falling  of  the  blood  and 
the  cleansing.  In  the  illustration  of  the  Mosaic  cult,  the  priest 
sprinkled  and  then  the  man  washed  himself.  Here  God  does 
both,  and  the  description  "whiter  than  snow"  seems  to  add 
a  trait  of  positive  goodness.     At  least  it  is  so  in  the  regenera- 


116  Selected  psalms  an D  a^onograpfjs 

tion;  the  sinnner  is  not  only  made  clean  but  bright.  The 
working  of  grace  and  the  co-working  of  the  man,  discrim- 
inated in  the  rite  by  the  sprinkling  and  the  washing,  are  united 
under  our  Lord  in  that  power  that  worketh  mightily  in  us 
both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure. 

Verse  8.     "Thou  wilt  make  me  to  hear  joy  and  glad- 
ness; the  bones  shall  rejoice  which  Thou  hast  broken." 

This  "joy  and  gladness"  Alexander  understands  as  the 
joyful  announcement  of  pardon  by  God,  and  this  interpreta- 
tion suits  the  parallelism,  if  that  refers  to  God's  wrath  and 
His  judicial  condemnation  of  sin.  But  this  can  hardly  be. 
David  had  already  heard  from  Nathan,  the  prophet,  the 
words,  "The  Lord  hath  put  away  thy  sin;,  thou  shalt  not 
die."  Besides  what  a  lowering  of  tone  after  the  preceding 
verses  which  manifest  such  agony  on  account  of  inborn  and 
dominating  corruption,  to  have  David  waiting  in  fear  and 
trembling  the  reversal  of  his  condemnation  on  account  of  a 
sinful  act.  It  would  be  also  entirely  out  of  character  with 
the  preceding  context  to  make  "the  bones  which  Thou  hast 
broken"  refer  to  God's  chastising  judgment  in  the  death  of 
the  child  of  sin,  and  the  verse  to  express  the  expectation  of 
having  his  heart  cheered  and  delivered  from  the  stress  of  his 
sorrow.  This  would  be  a  lame  and  impotent  conclusion  to 
those  awful  descriptions  of  his  corruption,  a  small  result  from 
that  remedy  which  affects  not  only  soul  and  body  of  the  sin- 
ner, but  whose  application  made  the  hills  to  tremble  and 
touches  universal  nature  at  its  core. 

It  would  be  more  congruous  to  understand  it  as  the 
joy  and  gladness  of  a  soul  rejoicing  to  be  assured  of  de- 
liverance from  its  corruption  of  nature.  But  in  that  case,  this 
verse  would  make  little  advance  upon  the  previous  one.  It 
would  merely  say  that  it  would  be  joyful  to  know  that  one 
was  purged  from  corruption,  and  again  one  feels  the  falling 
off  that  there  would  be. 

Can  we  not  begin  with  the  result  of  the  preceding  verse 
and  go  on  to  a  higher  result,   an  effect  of   the   thorough 


Ifteth  jFteDerick  &a  Eue  i&ing     117 

cleansing  work  upon  body  and  spirit.  And  here  on  this 
supposition  the  words  are  not  just  what  we  would  expect.  It 
is  not,  Thou  wilt  through  the  renovation  of  my  nature  fill 
me  with  joy  and  gladness  springing  up  from  within;  but 
"Thou  wilt  make  me  to  hear  joy  and  gladness."  The  joy 
and  gladness  is  outside,  only  the  ear  cannot  hear  it  until  it  is 
unstopped  by  *he  healing  of  the  nature.  Chords  that  are  in 
unison  will  both  vibrate  if  only  one  is  struck,  but  no  matter 
how  strong  the  sound  from  the  neighboring  chord,  the  string 
will  be  silent  until  it  is  tuned  up  to  the  same  note,  and  then 
it  will  give  forth  the  responsive  sound.  So  the  soul  may  be 
in  gloom  because  it  is  out  of  unison  with  the  basic  note  to 
which  God's  cosmos  is  attuned,  but  when  once  the  nature  is 
purged  the  deaf  ear  is  unstopped,  it  catches  something  of  that 
music  in  which  the  beams  of  the  universe  are  laid,  and  re- 
ceives into  itself  something  of  that  Joy  which  is  its  life. 

This  psalm  does  not  set  forth  the  experience  of  a 
trembling  culprit,  who  longs  to  escape  a  woe  that  really  over- 
hangs him,  and  from  the  doom  of  God.  It  is  a  forgiven 
sinner  who,  struggling  with  his  corruptions,  feels  how  joyous 
he  will  be  when  once  at  harmony  with  himself  and  God  and 
Nature  again.  He  is  told  of  God's  love  and  forgiveness, 
and  he  believes  it,  and  yet,  the  remembrance  of  past  acts,  the 
dreadful  regrets,  the  ever  new  solicitation,  the  dread  of  falling 
again,  the  utter  insecurity  of  the  future,  the  jar  on  his  whole 
nature,  prevent  him  from  taking  comfort.  He  has  not  com- 
pletely and  lovingly  turned  to  the  Lord,  and  distrust  and  evil 
inclination  are  yet  present.  He  does  not  yet  realize  the  love 
of  God  that  is  poured  out  towards  him,  but  does  not  reach 
him. 

One  of  the  means  of  renewal  that  God  uses,  is  outward 
pressure.  The  bones  of  the  unrenewed  man  were  old  through 
his  roaring  "his  moisture  is  turned  to  the  drought  of  sum- 
mer." After  David's  first  conviction  and  his  relief  from  fear 
of  punishment,  a  deeper  conviction  had  to  be  wrought,  in 
the  end  a  thorough  union  with  the  Lord.     This  was  partly 


118  ^electeQ  psalms  an DQ£onograpl)0 

the  work  of  the  sorrow  brought  upon  him,  and  all  that  knowl- 
edge of  self  and  the  Lord,  to  which  the  soul  comes  only 
through  pains  like  birth  throes. 

The  profound  knowledge  of  sin  that  David  evinces, 
his  deep  loathing,  and  his  great  longing  for  deliverance,  is 
the  other  side  of  terrible  suffering.  God  presses  sore  upon 
the  soul,  manifesting  His  moral  distance,  and  showing  by  the 
pain  He  inflicts  that  unison  with  Him  is  necessary  to  any  com- 
fort. The  very  inlet  of  light  alone  upon  the  soul  would  pro- 
duce agony.  God  also  exhibits  His  chastening  wrath.  Words 
cannot  be  used  which  will  more  strongly  express  this  unrest, 
than  the  words  used  here.  His  bones  are  broken.  Certainly 
a  man  with  his  bones  broken  as  on  a  wheel  is  one  of  the  most 
pitiable  of  objects  that  can  be  conceived.  The  rejoicing  of 
the  bones  may  well  figure  forth  the  restoration  of  comfort 
and  simple  ease.  We  can  hardly  go  farther  than  that  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  figure.  And  this  portion  of  the  psalm, 
though  it  ends  cheerfully,  does  not  rise  higher  than  ease, — 
comfort.  The  voices  of  joy  and  gladness  that  he  hears  avail 
to  fill  him  with  comfort  through  and  through. 

This  joy  and  gladness  that  he  hears  is  then, — first;  that 
sphere  of  music  of  the  universe  that  has  before  been  poured 
upon  deaf  ears, — his  soul  lifted  up  to  that,  it  is  enabled  to 
perceive  what  was  there  before — to  realize  the  infinite  love  of 
God,  and  His  purposes  of  good  to  all  His  creatures,  and  that 
even  in  this  fallen  world;  and  the  various  ways  in  which  He 
has  already  wrought,  the  mass  of  material  for  joy  that  exists 
even  in  this  fallen  world;  and  the  various  ways  in  which  He 
assures  us  of  further  and  higher  joy.  In  this  latter  division 
might  be  placed  what  Peroune  makes  the  whole  meaning  of 
this  joy  and  gladness  that  he  is  to  hear — the  rejoicing  at  the 
public  festivals.  (We  might  even  include  Moll's  very  odd 
interpretation,  which  is  equivalent  to  'make  me  to  hear  my 
own  voice  in  songs  of  gladness  on  account  of  forgiven  sin.') 
But  this  joy  and  gladness  may  have  a  more  positive  meaning. 
God  lifts  His  chastening  hand  away  from  the  pardoned  sinner. 


Beti*  jfreDerick  La  Eue  ifting     119 

speaks  encouragingly  to  him,  manifests  Himself  to  him,  com- 
munes with  him  in  love,  opens  his  ears  by  his  Holy  Spirit, 
and  by  providential  mercies  makes  his  path  smooth  and  de- 
lightful. In  the  case  of  David,  his  hearing  of  joy  and  glad- 
ness culminated,  and  his  bones  broken  by  God's  chastening 
hand,  rejoiced  indeed  when  Solomon  was  born  and  God 
called  him  his  Beloved,  and  promised  that  he  should  sit  upon 
the  throne. 

Verse  9.  "Hide  Thy  face  from  my  sins  and  all  my 
iniquities  blot  out."  Up  to  this  point  the  theme  has  been 
root-vileness  and  the  possibility  of  cleansing,  now  the  lyric 
bird  takes  anoiher  flight  (w.  9-13),  and  the  psalmist  is  oc- 
cupied not  so  much  with  his  attitude  towards  God  as  God's 
attitude  towards  him. 

Both  disease  and  remedy  appear  in  this  part  of  the 
psalm.  But  nothing  can  be  added  to  the  previous  description 
of  the  sin,  for  it  embraces  the  whole  nature,  and  lies  at  its 
very  core,  while  the  remedy  indicated  embraces  still  more, 
reaching  even  to  the  redemption  of  the  fallen  creation  of 
God.  Both  remedy  and  disease  rise  to  the  moral  plane,  and 
the  theme  is  on  the  side  of  the  disease,  God's  displeasure  with 
the  psalmist, — and  on  the  side  of  the  remedy,  the  possibility 
of  establishing  stable  feelings  of  love,  and  service,  and  peace 
before  God. 

The  first  petition  does  not  indicate  any  fear  of  conse- 
quences to  himself!  there  is  nothing  of  this  anywhere  in  the 
psalm.  For  his  nation  and  church  he  feared,  as  appears  by 
the  last  two  verses,  but  not  for  himself.  He  does  not  say, 
"Look  away  from  me,"  as  in  Ps.  39th,  1 3th.  It  is  the 
dread  of  remaining  corrupt  and  under  the  displeasure  of  God 
that  swallows  up  all  else. 

There  is  progress  in  this  psalm,  the  first  division  carries 
over  into  the  second  something  of  the  peace  in  which  it  ends. 
It  is  with  a  trust  that  cleansing  has  begun,  but  with  re- 
membrance of  his  past  transgressions  and  a  consciousness  of 
the  remaining  evil  of  his  soul,  that  he  asks  God  to  turn  his 


120  ©electen  psalms;  tmD  ^onopapfjs: 

face  away  from  his  sins,  to  neglect  and  ignore  them, — think 
of  him  and  feel  towards  him  as  if  they  were  not.  He  does 
not  ask,  "Hide  Thy  face  from  me,"  but  "from  my  sins."  He 
wants  God  to  look  at  him,  but  not  at  his  sins.  He  who  can 
make  such  a  bold  petition  as  this  has  already  separated  him- 
self from  his  sins.  And  here  we  may  recognize  what  has 
been  gained  through  the  positions  acquired  in  the  first  part. 
For  though  there,  self  and  sin,  in  the  5  th  verse,  seem  to  be  in- 
separably united,  and  yet  we  see  in  verse  7  the  possibility  of 
that  separation.  And  in  this  verse  we  see  that  one  who  is 
thoroughly  penetrated  with  a  sense  of  his  sinfulness,  may, 
while  beseeching  (v.  7),  "Cast  me  not  away  from  Thy 
presence,"  yet  say,  "Hide  Thy  face  from  my  sins."  And 
here  again  comes  in  the  precious  consideration  that  this 
psalm  is  dedicated  "to  the  Chief  Musician."  It  is  to  be  used 
by  the  people  of  God  in  their  worship,  assigned  to  that  office 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  acting  through  the  inspired  David. 

What  they  are  told  to  ask,  they  could  expect  to  receive. 
Many,  doubtless,  in  the  old  time,  blessed  God  that  such  a 
prayer  had  been  given  them  by  inspired  authority,  being  able 
to  use  it  for  themselves  only  because  David  had  used  it  for 
himself;  and  the  very  heinousness  of  the  sin  from  which  he 
asked  God  to  turn  His  face,  made  it  all  the  more  useful,  for 
who  then  could  feel  debarred  from  the  use  of  this  prayer? 
The  people  of  God  in  all  time  may  then  take  heart,  even  if 
their  past  acts  seeem  to  them  enormous,  and  their  present 
state  very  corrupt  and  degraded.  God  can  be  asked  to  over- 
look it  all,  and  therefore  they  may  be  assured  that  He  will. 
Let  us  be  clear:  There  is  not  a  petition  in  this  verse  for  de- 
liverance from  punishment.  There  a  soul  delivered  from 
punishment  asks  for  full  restoration  to  communion  and  favor 
of  a  dreadful  Judge.  He  asks  God  to  restore  the  lost  joy 
of  His  salvation.  He  is  willing  that  God  should  notice  his 
sins,  yet  he  stands  before  Him  as  many  a  one  has  stood  be- 
fore an  injured  friend, — pardoned,  received,  and  yet  think- 
ing— Oh  that  the  dreadful  knowledge  of  what  I  have  been. 


i&efcn  JreDericfe  La  Hue  filing     121 

of  what  I  have  done  and  said  were  not  his.  Oh  that  we 
might  begin  again  with  clear  accounts.  An  earthly  friend 
may  seem,  to  forget  as  truly  as  forgive,  but  yet  we  cannot 
help  interpreting  looks,  and  tones  and  words  in  the  light  of 
our  own  degrading  consciousness  of  ill — desert.  But  all 
sinners  may  be  assured  from  this  prayer  that  the  Great  God 
of  Heaven  and  Earth  forgives  and  forgets  utterly.  And  this 
is  the  measure  of  our  treatment  of  those  among  us,  who 
wrong  us  and  afterwards  turn  to  us.  It  is  amazing  that  such 
a  prayer  could  be  uttered  by  one  who  had  not  the  light  that 
we  have — how  it  could  be  used  as  to  its  import  in  public 
worship  by  those  who  had  not  David's  prophetic — impulse 
and  intuition,  it  is  hard  enough  for  us  to  believe  that  such 
a  thing  can  be,  who  have  been  assured  by  the  cleansing 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  who  unites  us  to  the  Lord.  Faith, 
to  be  sure,  does  not  always  need  a  full  explanation  of  the 
grounds  on  which  it  rests;  nevertheless  such  an  explanation  is 
a  precious  thing,  and  a  main  object  of  our  Lord's  mission 
to  earth  was  to  give  it  to  us.  (See  Roms.  3:25-26).  Some 
account  the  mind  instinctively  demands  the  grounds  upon 
which  its  faith  rests,  even  if  it  goes  but  a  little  way  towards 
solving  the  great  mystery.  And  here,  in  this  psalm,  we  seem 
to  have  what  may  be  styled  a  movement  towards  a  solution 
— a  germinal  solution — which  has  but  to  be  expanded  to  be 
all  the  solution  granted  even  to  us.  In  the  first  verse  we  have 
the  petition  of  the  last  very  nearly  "Blot  out  all  my  iniqui- 
ties." The  blotting  out  can  be  referred  in  the  first  verse 
to  the  overwhelming  force  of  God's  compassion.  "In  Thy 
tender  mercy  look  upon  my  sins,  and  blot  them  out,"  that  is 
let  them  rot  have  their  proper  effect  in  awakening  Thy 
wrath.  Let  them  rather  awaken  Thy  compassion."  The 
blotting  out  of  the  transgressions  depends  upon  His  keeping 
them  in  His  mind  or  His  heart.  In  verse  9  the  blotting 
out  depends  upon  God's  turning  His  face  from  the  sin,  and 
not  regarding  it  at  all.  This  is  assured  in  the  prayer  "Blot 
out."     God  will  be  gracious,  merciful  and  tender  towards 


t22  Selected  psalms  ano  ®onograpf)0 

the  sinner,  as  if  he  was  no  sinner,  washing  and  blotting  out. 
In  verse  20  find  an  equivoque  for  a  rational  ground  of  faith. 
God  will  blot  out  iniquity  by  hiding  His  face  from  it,  but 
will  create  in  the  sinner  (verse  10)  a  pure  heart. 

Verse  10.  "A  pure  heart  create  for  me,  Oh  God,  and 
a  fixed  spirit  renew  within  me."  This  verse  is  a  justification 
of  the  petitions  in  the  preceding  verse.  God,  King  and 
Judge,  can  allow  His  feelings  of  compassion  to  carry  away 
(verse  1.),  and  thus  not  regard  (blot  out)  the  transgres- 
sions of  the  sinner  who  turns  to  Him,  because  the  very  action 
of  that  compassion  tends  to  cleanse  the  soul  of  all  sin — it  is 
in  order  to  the  purging  with  hyssop,  and  making  thoroughly 
clean.  Here  in  this  verse  God,  the  friend  and  master,  can 
ignore  wrong  doing  and  faults  of  character  which  He  removes. 
And  this  renewal  of  the  character  must  take  place. 

The  hiding  of  God's  face  from  the  sins  of  His  servant 
implies  the  taking  him  into  the  fellowship  of  intercourse  again, 
and  this  would  be  a  shame  if  there  were  no  real  change  in  the 
heart  of  His  erring  servant.  To  stand  in  the  presence  of  God 
(verse  11.)  implies  God's  confidence  in  him,  and  a  reality  of 
intercourse,  not  a  pretense  of  one.  No  more  toleration  would 
answer  the  purpose.  We  must  feel  that  we  bring  something 
to  God.  The  merest  infant  still  has  an  independent  emotional 
life  of  its  own,  and  can  bring  something  to  the  wisest  and  the 
strongest  parent.  So  the  loving  willing  heart  of  a  human  be- 
ing can  bring  something  to  the  Great  God  of  Heaven  and 
Earth. 

If  a  new  heart  could  only  be  created!  And  this  is 
what  is  asked.  The  word  is  the  one  used  to  express  the 
mightiest  work  of  God's  creative  power  (Gen.  1  :1.),  and 
yet  how  amazing  the  faith  that  could  ask  such  a  thing.  We 
can  understand  somewhat  how  this  thing  can  be,  for  we 
know  that  the  Lord  can  dwell  within  us  through  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  we  can  be  irresistably  impelled  in  all  freedom 
and  spontaneity.  But  how  David  could  desire  this,  and  yet 
believe  he  would  not  become  a  mere  machine,  is  inconceiv- 


Eetn  jFre&erick  La  due  i&ing     123 

able.  He  could  not  of  himself  ask  this.  It  is  a  petition  that 
witnesses  its  own  inspiration.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  peti- 
tions of  this  verse  ask  for  something  other  than  has  been  asked 
for  before.  A  pure  heart  and  a  fixed  spirit  is  something  dif- 
ferent from  a  cleansing  of  the  very  root  of  life.  The  former 
is  an  effect  of  the  latter  on  the  plane  of  the  consciousness. 
The  feelings  are  to  be  made  pure.  This  could,  of  course,  be 
effected,  at  least  temporarily,  without  any  of  the  vital  work 
set  forth  in  the  first  division. 

One  feeling  can  be  made  to  cast  out  another.  By 
providential  arrangements  emotional  evil  can  be  kept  down, 
and  the  best  emotions  aroused.  Great  love  for  his  wife  will 
make  a  man  pure  in  heart,  so  far  as  exercises  go.  A  vast  deal 
of  our  purity,  and  indeed  of  all  for  which  we  value  ourselves, 
is  of  this  kind.  We  are  pure  because  God  keeps  us  pure, 
and  not  because  we  are  naturally  pure.  But  the  psalmist 
asks  not  to  be  kept,  he  wishes  to  have  created  for  him  a 
pure  heart.  It  is  strange  how  strong  the  expression  is.  In 
the  former  division  the  figures  of  washing  and  the  symbol  of 
sprinkling  were  used  to  set  forth  a  far  more  radical  remedy. 
The  reason  why  the  word  create  is  used  is  not  easy  to  see, 
except  to  assert  God's  sovereignty  in  the  free  emotional  sphere 
which  might  more  really  be  conceded  in  the  vital  sphere. 

It  might  be  thought  superfluous  to  say,  create  in  me 
pure  emotions,  when  he  had  already  asked  that  the  inner 
part  should  be  cleansed,  that  his  life  should  be  made  true 
and  wise. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  the  case  if  the  body  were  all 
right  and  the  earth  were  right,  and  the  world  of  human 
beings  around  which  would  prevent  the  normal  action  of 
that  which  is  within. 

God's  Spirit  dwells  within  many  a  man  whom  pre- 
judice and  ignorance  leads  so  far  astray  that  there  is  love 
when  there  should  be  hate.  Witness  holy  men  who  have 
been  persecutors.  There  seems  therefore  a  need  that  God 
should  act  upon  as  well  as  in  us.     All  Christians  should  see 


124  Selected  psalms  ano  ^onograpjjs 

this.  They  cannot  depend  upon  their  regeneration,  and  rest 
upon  their  oars,  as  a  plant  can,  merely  uttering  forth  the  life 
that  is  within.  (And  indeed  even  in  the  case  of  the  plant 
the  solicitations  of  the  sun  are  needed  to  draw  it  forth.) 
Christians  are  in  great  danger  when  they  do  this.  They  may 
have  been  sprinkled  with  hyssop  and  made  clean.  It  may  be 
said  to  them,  "Ye  know  all  things."  "Ye  cannot  sin."  (1st 
John).  Yet  they  have  but  the  germ,  and  must  ask  God  to 
build  that  germ  up  into  a  perfect  and  glorious  character. 
This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  asking  God  to  exert  creative 
power  in  the  region  of  the  free  and  moral. 

The  regenerated  soul  may  well  tremble  for  its  com- 
munion with  God,  the  fellowship  that  it  craves,  if  God  could 
not  disregard  its  sins  and  view  it  only  in  the  Beloved;  and 
well  it  might  tremble  in  looking  to  the  future,  if  it  did  not 
believe  that  He  who  was  within  working  mightily  was  with- 
out working  mightily,  revealing  through  His  truth,  guiding 
and  stimulating  by  His  providences  and  acting  directly  on  the 
soul.  Thus  the  heart  is  made  pure,  that  is,  not  merely  is 
delivered  from  the  licentious  feelings  that  led  him  into  the 
present  troubles,  but  has  given  to  it  all  that  simplicity  and 
elevation  of  feeling  that  adjusts  the  soul  to  what  in  this 
world  of  falsehood,  deformity  and  change,  is  true  and  beauti- 
ful and  eternal.  This  work  of  God  is  one  never  ending,  still 
beginning,  and  is  well  set  forth  under  the  word,  renew,  which 
signifies  not  only  the  asking  for  the  restoration  of  that  which 
was  lost,  but  may  imply, — keep  renewing;  keep  adjusting. 
For  not  by  a  fiat  of  creative  power  is  the  heart  kept  in  purity, 
but  by  a  constant  act  of  reparation  and  correction. 

Every  word  in  this  verse  is  precious,  and  should  be 
weighed  not  so  much  to  gather  instruction  as  to  enable  the 
servant  of  God  to  utter  them  well.  The  man  who  has  not 
known  the  force  of  lust  on  contemplation,  who  has  not  fallen 
into  gross  sin  is  likely  to  feel  able  to  make  his  spirit  fixed  by  his 
own  strong  resolve.  But  many  know  that  one  of  the  most 
fearful  results  of  sin  is  the  sense  of  instability  that  it  leaves 


I&eto*  jFceOerick  La  iftue  ding     125 

behind  in  the  penitent  one.  Apostacy  seems  so  likely,  the 
force  of  resolve  so  important. 

Is  one  in  such  a  case  to  act  the  virile,  self-reliant  part, — 
is  he  obliged  to  feel  that  he  must,  in  the  light  of  consciousness, 
rebuild  his  character,  make  his  heart  pure  and  his  spirit 
fixed?  No.  This  psalm  is  addressed  to  the  Chief  Musi- 
cian, it  is  for  the  people  of  God  to  utter.  We  can  not  only 
say,  "Work  Thou  in  me,"  but  "lay  Thy  hand  upon  me." 
To  be  weak  is  to  be  strong. 

Even  after  the  new  will, — we  are  so  free  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  gracious  gift,  and  so  terribly  abuse  our  free- 
dom that  it  is  a  comfort  indeed  that  we  are  permitted  to  con- 
nect ourselves  wholly  to  Him,  to  develop  that  which  He  has 
given  to  keep  back  evil  feelings  and  induce  good  ones ;  and  by 
constant  acts  of  support,  make  the  wavering  spirit  firm  as  a  rock. 

"Create."  "Make  life  a  part  of  my  nature,  and  not 
merely  wash  me." 

Verse  1  1 .  "Cast  me  not  away  from  Thy  presence  and 
take  not  Thy  Holy  Spirit  from  me."  This  verse  is  remark- 
able as  being  the  only  one  in  which  mention  is  made  of  any 
punishment  that  David  dreads  on  account  of  his  sin.  It  is 
remarkable  also  as  being  one  of  the  three  places  in  the  Old 
Testament  where  the  expression  "Holy  Spirit"  occurs,  the 
other  two  being  in  the  63rd  chapter  of  Isaiah. 

It  is  very  clear  from  this  petition  that  David  regards 
himself  as  being  still  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  in  pos- 
session of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  preceding  verse  he  asks 
for  something  that  he  has  not;  here  he  prays  that  that  may 
not  be  taken  away  which  he  has.  What  then,  is  this  pos- 
session of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  he  still  may  claim  for  him- 
self, notwithstanding  his  sin  and  sinfulness?  Alexander  and 
others  understood  it  in  the  New  Testament  sense,  as  those 
active  moral  influences  that  make  for  holiness.  So  that  in 
verse  1  0  he  prays  that  a  pure  heart  may  be  created  in  him, 
and  here  he  prays  that  the  necessary  means  to  this  may  not 
be  taken  away. 


126  ^electeD  psalms  anO  ^onogtap|)0 

Now,  not  to  mention  that  this  close  distinction  and  dis- 
crimination seem  unsuited  to  a  passionate  lyric  like  this,  the 
word  "create"  (in  verse  10.)  would  exclude  this.  The  pure 
heart  is  asked  for  directly  at  the  hands  of  God,  unmediated 
by  any  attribute  or  person  of  the  Godhead,  and  this  is  the 
way  throughout  the  whole  psalm,  the  washing  from  iniquity, 
verse  2,  and  the  purging  with  hyssop,  verse  7,  is  asked  for  of 
God  without  any  reference  to  any  mode  or  means  of  doing 
this.  It  will  not  do  to  import  our  clearer  and  more  elaborate 
theological  modes  of  thought  and  expression  into  the  Old 
Testament,  and  especially  the  poetry  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  that,  too,  Lyric  poetry. 

Besides,  a  more  weighty  consideration  is  this.  If  in 
this  place  the  Holy  Spirit  is  referred  to  as  the  author  of 
moral  changes,  it  is  the  only  place  in  the  Old  Testament. 

There  is  one  class  of  passages  that  show  the  Spirit's 
work  in  Nature,  e.  g.,  Gen.  1.2.;  Job  26:  13,  and  33: 
4 ;  Psalm  1  04 :30.  Another  class  of  passages  refer  to  mirac- 
ulous effects  wrought  by  the  spirit  as  on  Samson,  (Judges  1  4: 
6,  15,  19),  strengthening  the  muscles;  upon  Bezaleal,  Ex. 
31  :  2-5,  making  him  a  skillful  artificer;  upon  Saul  throwing 
him  into  an  ecstacy,  (1st  Sam.  9:  23-24),  on  David  re- 
vealing to  him  the  designs  of  the  temple,  ( 1  st  Chronicles  28 : 
12-19);  upon  prophets  generally,  enabling  them  to  declare 
the  will  of  God,  and  future  events, — a  notable  example  of 
which  is  Balaam's  prophecy,  (Numbers  24:  2), — and  con- 
trolling their  imagination,  as  in  the  case  of  visions  of  Ezekiel. 

Prophetic  powers  did  not  imply  always  good  moral 
chaiacter:  and  in  all  probability  Balaam  felt  perfectly  secure 
of  his  position  as  prophet,  notwithstanding  his  sinfulness. 
But  David  feels  however  the  incongruity  between  his  pro- 
phetic position  and  his  exceeding  sinfulness.  Retaining  his 
sin  and  his  corruplon  he  feels  he  cannot  retain  his  position  of 
honour  and  usefulness,  and  that  the  answer  to  this  petition, 
though  not  involved  in  the  answers  to  the  previous  ones,  is 
yet  only  made  possible  by  them. 


IReto*  jFceDetick  La  Iftue  ifting     127 

How  fully  this  verse  shadows  forth  the  dispensation  of 
the  Spirit,  whose  great  head  was  a  Prophet  in  whom  the 
spiritual  endowment  implied  all  holiness,  and  who  gave  the 
Spirit  to  His  followers  to  be  the  power  of  a  new  moral 
life. 

Presuming  not  upon  his  restoration  to  holiness,  feeling 
that  God,  even  then,  might  rightfully  degrade  him,  he 
makes  it  a  subject  of  supplication  that  he  might  be  still  allowed 
the  spiritual  leadership  of  his  people.  And  well  does  such  a 
petition  befit  this  psalm,  in  which  he  does  not  pray  to  be  de- 
livered from  many  a  punishment  that  he  might  well  dread, 
but  for  restoration  to  purity  and  God's  favor,  for  it  is  no 
selfish  dread  that  fills  his  mind,  but  love  for  God's  service  and 
love  of  his  fellow  men.  The  real  animus  of  this  petition  is 
shown  in  the  1  3th  verse.  "Then  will  I  teach  transgressors 
thy  ways,  and  sinners  shall  be  converted  unto  thee."  This 
verse  may  well  be  made  the  utterance  of  the  repentant  Chris- 
tian, who  over  and  above  any  other  punishment  that  he  may 
have  reason  to  apprehend;  may  well  dread  that,  though  for- 
given, purged  of  sin,  and  taken  into  God's  favor,  he  may 
lose  forever  influence,  position,  and  opportunities  for  doing 
good  that  are  now  his  priceless  possession. 

God's  threat  to  his  sinning  servants,  "I  will  remove  thy 
candlestick  out  of  his  place,"  is  not  always  unfulfilled.  Let, 
however,  one  wIig  has  sinned  even  like  David,  repenting  like 
David,  like  David  take  heart  to  pray  and  hope,  since  these 
words  are  put  into  his  mouth,  that  he  will  not  be  cast  aside 
like  a  broken  and  worthless  tool;  but,  though  bearing  always 
an  agonizing  consciousness  that  belies  the  respect  paid  him 
by  others,  he  can  do  something  still  for  the  cause  he  loves 
more  than  ever  before. 

Verse  1 2.  "Restore  to  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation, 
and  (with)  a  willing  spirit  uphold  me." 

The  variety  of  the  petitions  of  this  psalm  and  its  slow 
gradations  and  fine  discrimination  is  something  very  won- 
derful. 


128  ^electeu  P0alm$  anD  Sjionogtapfjg 

"Joy"  has  been  spoken  of  before  (verse  8th),  but  it  is 
joy  and  gladness  as  heard.  It  is  one  thing  for  the  heart  to  be 
attuned  to  gladness — to  be  responsive  to  the  joy  around,  and 
quite  another  to  be  full  of  joy  welling  up  from  within.  This 
is  what  the  psalmist  asks  for  here.  "The  joy  of  thy  salvation" 
cannot  mean  the  joy  of  being  saved  from  punishment  and  sin, 
for  it  is  a  joy  that  he  has  had  before,  and  that  he  asks  to  be 
restored.  Neither  is  it  probable  that  David  had  before  gone 
through  with  any  experience  like  this,  of  agonizing  penitence 
and  the  deliverance  into  favor.  "Salvation"  does  not  refer  to 
anything  peculiar  to  David,  but  to  the  common  state  of  wel- 
fare in  which  every  true  Israelite  lived.  "Salvation"  properly 
means  deliverance,  rescue.  The  history  of  the  chosen  people 
was  a  history  of  rescues,  and  the  consciousness  of  this  caused 
them  to  call  that  deliverance,  which  we  would  call  only  well- 
being.  Both  the  past  and  present  situation  of  Israel  induced 
in  the  pious  Jew  the  feeling  that  any  prosperity  that  they  en- 
joyed was  due  solely  to  the  protecting  arm  of  God.  And 
this  feeling  was  supplemented  by  a  large  anticipation  that 
made  even  a  state  of  comparative  ease  and  prosperity,  mis- 
erable compared  with  that  which  they  claimed  and  expected. 

We  may  well  suppose  that  David,  who  in  his  own 
person  could  count  so  many  deliverances,  and  who  stood  at 
the  threshold  of  a  new  national  and  religious  movement,  of 
which  he  was  the  light  and  the  impulse, — must  have  had  this 
feeling  in  the  intensest  degree.  "The  Joy  of  thy  salvation" 
would  then  mean  in  the  first  instance  the  peace  and  comforts 
and  cheerfulness  of  a  true  Israelite  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  the  prosperity  to  which  the  Lord's  deliverance  had  brought 
the  nation,  and  above  all,  acme  of  all  deliverance,  God's 
favor  towards  himself,  and  cordial  confidence  on  his  part 
towards  God. 

He  may  before  this  have  been  hardly  conscious  of  the 
blessedness  of  this  state  of  innocence  and  prosperity,  but 
now,  looking  back  to  it  out  of  the  midst  of  his  guilt  and  sor- 
row, it  well  may  appear  to  him  a  time  of  joy. 


I&etn  jFreDetick  Jta  I&ue  ifting     129 

But,  second, — there  was  a  joy  over  and  above  this  that 
David  had  in  his  time  of  innocence — the  joy  of  happy, 
hopeful  work  for  the  future.  David  knew  that  his  work 
was  not  merely  for  the  present — "Thou  hast  spoken  also  of 
thy  servant's  house  for  a  great  while  to  come," — with  a 
career  of  magnificent  conquest  behind  him,  honored  by  his 
people  as  deliverer  and  prophet, — he  was  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  a  Kingdom  which  he  was  assured  would  be  forever. 
It  was  the  splendor  of  this  far  future  glorifying  every  act  of 
the  present  that  made  his  work  so  joyous.  This  "Joy  of 
thy  salvation"  it  was  that  he  so  bitterly  regretted  and  so 
eagerly  craved  to  have  restored.  And  this  view  immediately 
connects  this  verse  with  the  preceding.  There  he  asks  that 
he  may  not,  while  forgiven  the  sin  and  retaining  his  office 
as  King,  lose  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  enabled 
him  to  be  a  spiritual  leader  to  his  nation. 

Here  he  prays  that, — over  and  above  the  return  of  lost 
peace  and  favor  of  God,  and  the  innocent  joys  of  the  past, — 
may  come  back  the  old  creative  activity,  and  joyful  energy 
in  God's  service.  The  last  clause  of  the  verse  is  like  the 
first.  He  prays, — and  it  is  a  wonderful  prayer,  different 
from  anything  taught  by  the  heart  of  man.  One  would 
think  that  a  penitent  man  like  David  after  falling  so  dread- 
fully would  be  full  of  resolutions  of  future  strictness,  close 
watchfulness,  and  how  natural  for  such  an  one  to  limit  his 
appeal  to  God,  to  merely  asking  Him  to  aid  by  His  Spirit 
in  making  him  more  strict.  How  natural  that  he  should  be 
disgusted  with  freedom  because,  living  too  carelessly  he  had 
fallen  into  sin.  Yet  David  prays  to  be  upheld  through  that 
very  freedom,  his  spontaneous  impulses.  The  very  con- 
ception of  such  a  restoration  is  amazing.  This  willing  spirit 
upheld  in  its  obedience  more  mightily  by  its  impulses  than  it 
ever  could  be  by  the  most  rigid  adherence  to  Law  is  akin  to 
the  "Joy  of  Thy  salvation"  of  the  preceding  verse.  It  is  a 
spirit  drawn  forth  by  God's  precepts  being  addressed  to  all 
its  ablest  and  mightiest  instincts.     His  work  being  the  carry- 


130  Selected  psalm0  anD  aponogcapijg 

ing  out  of  patriotic  feelings,  love  to  his  fellows,  poetic  im- 
pulses, and  the  farthest  search  of  the  constructive  imagination. 
All  penitent  ones,  in  like  circumstances,  should  exercise 
David's  great  faith.  In  the  depth  of  their  penitence  they 
should  hope  and  ask  for,  not  half  but  whole  restoration, — 
to  pray  for  joy  again,  and  because  they  know  that  this  joy  is 
strength,  and  that  in  full,  free  activity  is  safety.  To  wrap 
our  holiness  in  a  napkin  may  cause  its  loss.  Man  must  seek 
besides  his  own  improvement  that  of  others.  They  who  are 
restored  from  backsliding,  and  would  keep  themselves  from 
falling  again,  had  better  forget  all  about  themselves,  and 
their  spiritual  ailments,  in  the  love  and  active  service  of 
God,  and  their  fellow  men. 

Indeed  we  may  reasonably  consider  that  David  in 
asking  God  to  keep  him  in  his  place  of  service,  and  uphold 
him  in  the  energies  and  joy  of  that  service,  was  not  merely 
seeking  a  delight  that  he  craved,  but  asking  for  that  which 
in  his  heart  he  felt  to  be  necessary  to  his  being  sustained 
in  the  right  way.  We  may  well  imagine  that  he  looked 
with  horror  upon  the  prospect  of  the  loss  of  his  exalted 
work,  and  its  compelling  attractions,  as  a  loss  of  the  very 
bulwark  and  defence  of  holiness. 

Verse  1 3.  "Then  will  I  teach  transgressors  Thy 
ways,  and  sinners  unto  Thee  shall  return."  In  verse  11th 
we  have  the  petition  "Thrust  me  not  from  my  high  service." 
In  verse  1  2th,  "Restore  to  me  the  joy  and  zeal  of  service." 
And  here  we  have  the  grandest  and  most  joyful  act  of 
service  we  can  render  to  God.  Following  verses  1  1  th  and 
1 2th,  it  should  not  suggest  an  attempt  by  good  works  to 
increase  self  respect  or  evidences.  But  David  must  regard 
it  as  the  brightest  result  of  his  own  reconversion,  that  he 
should  be  the  agent  of  the  reconversion  of  others  wandering 
from  God.  It  is  not  a  resolve  but  a  joyous  anticipation; 
not  in  the  least  seeking  to  make  a  return  to  God,  a  delight 
in  saving  men,  and  thus  serving  God,  he  might  take  some 
cheer     in     the     fact     that     increased     knowledge     of     sin 


iftetu  jFre&erick  La  Iftue  ifting     131 

and  God,  would  make  him  more  useful;  for  the  teacher  has 
been  to  school.  He  can  now  teach  the  ways  of  God, — 
the  blessed  ways  in  which  He  would  have  His  servants  walk, 
and  His  ways  of  dealing  with  the  repentant  sinner.  And 
these  are  one.  God  would  have  us  walk  in  His  footprints. 
God  makes  a  way  for  us  to  walk  by  walking  first,  as  a 
father  leads  his  child  through  difficulties.  We  walk  in  His 
ways  by  voluntarily  meeting  Him  in  His  ways — in  the  recep- 
tion of  His  good  providence  and  His  great  grace,  with  grati- 
tude and  love,  and  acting  these  feelings;  and  since  we  are 
made  in  His  image,  the  life  that  ensues  from  union  and  com- 
munion with  Him  will  be  patterned  upon  His. 

To  experience  properly  God's  dealings  (ways)  really 
implies  all  that  is  meant  by  walking  in  His  ways.  Even  the 
Ten  Commandments  are  just  as  much  a  witness  of  God's 
holiness — the  ways  in  which  He  walks — as  a  rule  for  us. 

The  confidence  with  which  He  looks  forward  to  great 
results  may  or  may  not  be  justified,  His  humble  and  affection- 
ate monitions  to  those  about  Him  may  not  have  been  ef- 
fectual ;  but  one  thing  is  certain, — that  to  those  who  have  had 
much  forgiven  them,  is  often  granted  great  power  to  lead 
others  back  to  the  way  of  life.  "Out  of  the  eater  comes 
forth  meat."  The  temptation  and  the  fall  of  some  men  is 
like  a  descent  into  a  deep  and  dark  mine,  from  which  they 
emerge  bringing  with  them  the  gold  they  have  found  there. 
Precious  things  are  brought  from  distinct  climes,  and  so  they 
who  have  been  shut  up  face  to  face  with  God  in  the  throes 
of  contrition  and  the  rapture  of  pardon,  come  forth  bearing 
to  their  fellows  more  precious  gifts  than  if  they  had  visited 
the  far  off  gardens  of  the  Hesperides  and  brought  back  its 
apples  of  gold. 

Verse  14.  "Free  me  from  blood  (oh)  God,  God  of 
my  salvation,  (and)  my  tongue  shall  celebrate  Thy  righteous- 
ness." 

The  lyrical  ebb  takes  place  here.  He  has  asked  to  be 
delivered  from  his  corruption  and  that  God  would  be  re- 


132  ^>electeD  psalms  anD  Qionograp&s; 

conciled  with  him,  but  now  the  sense  of  his  guilt  rushes  upon 
him  with  overwhelming  force  and  bows  him  for  the  moment 
to  the  earth.  It  is  a  great  difficulty.  The  psalmist  can,  any 
one  can,  conceive  himself  as  pure  instead  of  being  impure, 
and  God  as  looking  upon  him  with  pity  and  love,  instead  of 
with  loathing  and  indignation. 

These  are  hard  things,  but  they  are  conceivable.  But 
committed  crime  can  never  be  uncommitted,  and  how  then 
can  one  who  has  committed  a  crime  be  acquitted  by  per- 
fect and  omniscient  justice?  Yet  this  amazingly  bold  request 
he  makes.  Undoubtedly  guilty  of  murder,  he  asks  to  be 
cleared,  and  then,  to  add  to  the  paradox,  engages  to  cele- 
brate the  justice  of  the  Judge  who  declares  him  not  guilty. 
But  does  the  verse  mean  this?  Does  "Free  from  blood" 
mean,  "Make  me  not  guilty?"  May  it  not  refer,  as  many 
think,  to  the  threatening  of  the  prophet, — "Now  therefore 
the  sword  shall  never  depart  from  thy  house,"  (Second  Sam- 
uel, 12:  10)  and  fulfilled  in  the  case  of  his  immediate  family, 
in  the  two  notable  instances  of  Amnon  and  Absalom. 

The  last  clause  would  mean,  "I  will  celebrate  Thy  faith- 
fulness to  Thy  promises  to  me  and  mine,  since  for  their  sake 
Thou  hast  kept  away  this  evil  that  I  have  incurred." 

To  justify  this  interpretation  of  the  first  petition  in  this 
verse,  some  commentators  adduce  the  fact  that  the  word 
"free"  is  used  generally — with  reference  to  delieverance  from 
danger,  and  find  in  it  an  allusion  to  Gen.  4 :  1  0,  as  if  he  had 
said,  "Deliver  me  from  this  blood  that  cries  out  against  me." 
If  this  is  so,  then  the  word  "blood"  would  only  mean  the 
blood  of  Uriah,  and  the  prayer  a  general  depreciation  of  the 
punishment  of  murder,  and  especially  that  denounced  by  the 
prophet  Nathan,  but  with  no  direct  allusion  to  it.  But  if  the 
petition,  "free  from  blood,"  does  not  mean  more  than  this, 
it  would  be  very  much  lower  in  tone  than  the  rest  of  the 
psalm;  for  to  bring  in  amidst  these  expressions  of  agonizing 
penitence  a  prayer  merely  for  delieverance  from  punishment 
would  be  a  strange  dissonance. 


I&eto*  jFteDerick  £a  Eue  ifting     133 

No  interpretation  should  be  admitted  that  did  not  give 
the  experience,  set  forth  here,  the  profoundest  character;  for 
this  psalm  goes  everywhere  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 

Now,  there  are  three  things  that  every  penitent  soul  de- 
sires, and  these  three  granted,  his  case  is  perfectly  met. 

First: — That  God  should  regard  and  remember  his  sins 
no  more.  The  preceding  part  of  the  psalm  has  been  occupied 
with  these  two  needs,  but  there  is  necessary,  in  order  to  per- 
fect his  deliverance, — 

Third: — That  he  should  be  freed  from  all  its  desert. 
No  matter  how  clean  present  impulses  may  be,  no  matter 
how  many  assurances  I  may  have  that  my  ill  deeds  will  never 
be  brought  up  against  me,  the  mere  feeling  that  I  am  eter- 
nally a  convict  will  be  of  itself,  punishment.  To  think  I  am 
living  on  sufferance,  that  my  impunity  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  eternal  laws  of  the  universe  of  things,  will  sometimes  cloud 
the  sky  of  faith,  and  make  peace  itself  a  struggle.  In  such 
a  psalm  of  universal  penitence  we  would  suppose  that  this 
need  would  find  expression,  and  if  anywhere,  here  is  the  place 
for  this  "free  me  from  blood"  means  "free  me  from  guilt." 
Something  certainly  was  asked  for  here  that  required  a 
mighty  effort  of  faith,  and  this  is  shown  by  the  repeated  call 
on  God,  and  its  intense  form — "God  of  my  salvation.  "In- 
deed a  literal  translation  of  "blood"  is  "bloods"  meaning 
idiomatically  murder.  So  this  would  stand  "free  me  from 
murder,"  of  which  we  would  only  say  that  it  may  possibly 
contain  an  allusion,  through  equivoque  to  Nathan.  Because 
the  psalm  belonged  to  the  ritual  for  universal  use,  Nathan's 
threat  of  a  special  punishment  has  no  place  in  the  petition. 
The  individualization  of  the  crime,  and  especially  because 
it  is  a  capital  crime,  would  all  the  better  make  it  a  universal 
psalm,  for  if  a  murderer  could  ask  freedom  from  guilt,  any- 
one could.  David  seems  to  say,  I  do  not  know  how  Thou 
wilt  save,  I  only  know  Thou  canst  in  Thy  boundless  power, 
and  hast  in  the  past  and  hope  Thou  wilt  again,  because  nec- 
essary for  my  salvation.     Amazing  request!     God's  power 


134  ^electea  p$aim$  ana  ®onogtapf)0 

can  make  us  pure,  free  from  punishment,  but  can  it  remove 
guilt?  The  feeling  of  guilt,  no  doubt  had  been  removed 
under  the  old  Law.  "The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  restor- 
ing the  soul,"  and  the  soul's  restoration,  no  doubt  from  the 
very  first  was  felt  to  need  justification,  over  and  above  cleans- 
ing and  pardon.  The  distinction  may  not  have  been  always 
clean  cut  before  the  mind,  but  more  or  less  clearly,  it  was 
present,  in  the  case  of  a  true  penitent.  Indeed,  it  is  the  part 
of  true  penitence  that  is  most  prominent  in  even  a  shallow  and 
fleshly  sorrow  for  sin,  and  the  easiest  to  be  removed  in  such 
a  case.  A  man  who  had  little  or  no  sense  of  his  corruption, 
and  who  cared  very  little  for  the  loss  of  God's  favor,  might 
feel  very  intensely  his,  and  be  ready  to  make  great  efforts  to 
expiate  it,  and  throughout  Christendom  and  heathendom 
there  are  a  thousand  contrivances  of  man,  which  are  effective 
as  a  temporary  opiate  for  the  feeling  of  guilt.  The  ignorant 
formalist,  who  confesses  his  sins  in  the  most  perfunctory  way, 
will  often  go  away  feeling  no  longer  guilty.  The  formula  that 
occurs  so  often  in  the  book  of  Leviticus,  "and  shall  be  for- 
given," doubtless,  often  ministered  to  the  want  of  the  truly 
penitent  soul,  where  that  want  was  not  distinctly  brought  out 
before  the  consciousness.  The  fact  that  the  great  Jehovah 
forgave,  would  also  make  a  man  feel  guiltless  in  ordinary 
cases.  But  let  a  man  have  a  deep  conviction  of  sin,  and  a 
profound  sense  of  the  perfection  of  God's  justice,  and  guilt 
will  not  seem  to  be  a  thing  lightly  to  be  gotten  rid  of.  He 
is  not  blind  like  the  simple  and  shallow  minded.  He  sees 
that  the  sinner  must  be  justified  or  never  forgiven.  For  God's 
justice,  not  being  satisfied,  will  punish,  though  it  rends  His 
heart.  Earthly  rulers  have  been  capable  of  this,  shall  not  the 
Judge  of  all  be  as  heroic? 

This  feeling  of  guilt  was  very  deep  and  general  when 
Christ  came,  and  it  was  meant  to  satisfy  it  that  (as  we  are 
told,  Rom.  3:  24-25)  Christ  suffered  on  the  cross.  David's 
experience  had  brought  him  to  just  this  feeling.  Perhaps 
he  was  the  first  who  had  the  clear  consciousness  of  the  need 


EetJ.  jFreDerick  La  I&ue  ifting     135 

of  justification  as  distinct  from  cleansing  and  pardon;  and  it 
is  touching  to  see  how  he  appeals  to  God  for  this  thing,  to 
God  directly,  without  any  knowledge  of  the  mode  in  which 
this  is  to  be  done. 

The  worthlessness  of  sacrifices  as  a  means  he  distinctly 
sees,  the  Old  Law  fails  to  give  a  remedy,  and  yet  such  a  rite 
as  that  of  the  Day  of  Atonement  might  be  in  his  mind  at  this 
time  to  justify  his  petition.  That  rite  seems  specially  desired 
to  meet  this  need  of  the  soul.  The  sins  of  the  people  were 
said  to  be  put  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  and  it  was  added, 
"and  the  goat  shall  bear  upon  him  all  their  iniquities  unto  a 
land  not  inhabited."  This  was  certainly  calculated  to  make 
the  people  feel  not  merely  that  they  were  pardoned,  but  that 
they  were  no  more  sinners,  and  corresponds  directly  with  the 
petition  of  this  verse,  which  is  equivalent  to,  "Take  this  mur- 
der away  from  me." 

David  might  well  say,  thinking  of  such  a  rite  as  the 
leading  away  of  the  goat  symbolically  laden  with  the  sins 
of  the  people  to  a  land  where  there  were  none  to  be  made 
guilty  by  them — yes,  well  might  he  say,  "Remember  Thy 
word  to  Thy  servant  upon  which  Thou  hast  caused  me  to 
hope."  But  he  would  be  enabled  to  do  this  through 
no  doctrinal  inference,  but  only  by  a  mighty  effort 
of  faith. 

In  the  second  clause  of  the  verse  we  see  a  manifestation 
of  another  feeling.  Not  only  is  it  necessary  for  his  salvation 
to  be  made  formally  guiltless — he  must  be  really  so.  The 
Judge  must  do  it  rightfully.  Neither  in  law  or  equity  ought 
there  to  be  any  claim  upon  this  justification.  He  must  be 
made  strictly  not  guilty, — or  the  Judge's  own  character  is 
stained.  Truly,  it  is  a  mighty  work  to  save  us.  Says  Bax- 
ter, "and  much  ado  He  hath  to  get  us  home."  God  must 
always  be  just.  The  psalmist  sees  (verse  4)  that  his  sin 
shows  God's  righteousness  in  condemning,  and  now  he  only 
asks  that  God's  righteousness  may  be  equally  displayed  in 
his  acquittal. 


136  Selected  psalms  ana  ©onograp&s 

It  would  be  little  joy  in  heaven  for  us  to  feel  that 
we  were  saved  at  the  expense  of  the  slightest  injury  to  the 
character  of  God.  God  Himself  in  the  integrity  of  His  per- 
fections is  the  great  possession  of  the  redeemed,  and  it  will  in 
reality  add  to  their  bliss  to  think  that  God's  Justice  is  all 
the  more  exhibited  and  glorified  by  their  salvation.  It  is  with 
some  anticipation  of  this  feeling  that  David  thinks,  "How 
delightful  it  will  be  to  be  saved,  and  yet  to  be  able  to  revel 
in  the  perfections  of  God,  and  present  Him  to  this  generation 
as  all  just,  and  all  merciful.  Make  this  possible,  O  God, 
make  me  guiltless,  that  I  may  rejoice  in  and  praise  Thy  jus- 
tice in  my  salvation." 

To  say,  "My  tongue  shall  celebrate,"  is  stronger  than 
to  say,  "I  will."  It  is  as  if  he  had  said,  "My  tongue  will  be 
taken  possession  of,  and  used  by  an  uncontrollable  impulse 
to  praise." 

With  the  completion  of  my  brother's  comment  on  verse 
1  4th,  there  also  ends  his  work  on  Psalm  LI.  In  reference 
to  that  he  quotes  this  sentence  from  the  Talmud: 

"It  is  not  incumbent  on  thee  to  finish  thy  work,  but 
nevertheless  thou  must  never  cease  from  it." 

What  follows  is  an  attempt  on  our  part,  to  finish  as  we 
may,  the  work  he  had  no  strength  to  accomplish.  We  will 
begin  at  the  fifteenth  verse. 

VERSE  15 
"Lord,  my  lips  Thou  wilt  open,  and  my  mouth  shall 
declare  Thy  praise."  Both  Alexander  and  the  Prayer  Book 
decline  using  the  imperative  rendering  of  the  English  Ver- 
sion, and  substitute  the  prophetic,  trustful  future  of  "wilt" 
and  "shall."  "Shall  declare  Thy  praise."  A  satisfactory  clue 
to  the  forceful  meaning  of  these  words,  may  be  found  in  the 
fact  of  David's  constitutional  capacity  (augmented  by  the 
presence  and  power  of  the  Spirit)  to  praise  the  God  of  Israel, 
whom  he  worshipped  and  in  whom  he  delighted.  Recall  (II 
Sam.  6:  14)  the  occasion  when  "David  danced  before  the 


I&eto*  jfreDerick  La  Eue  %in$     137 

Lord  with  all  his  might,"  and  also  his  many  psalms  of  exalted 
praise.  Then  add  to  these  the  language  of  Psalm  XXXII : 
1 .  "Blessed  is  he  whose  transgression  is  forgiven,  whose  sin 
is  covered,"  words  quoted  by  the  apostle  to  confirm  his  gos- 
pel of  imputations  in  Roman  4;  and  then  tell  us  if  we  are 
not  warranted  in  saying  that  David's  normal  condition  of 
heart  was  an  inextinguishable  and  triumphant  praise,  far  be- 
yond and  above  the  average  attained  by  other  Old  Testament 
saints?  If  this  be  conceded,  then  we  are  permitted  to  say,  that 
underneath  the  wounds  made  by  a  sword-thrusting  conscience, 
underneath  the  self-horror  and  bitter  sorrow,  coming  into 
existence  with  the  crushing  words,  "Thou  art  the  man," 
there  abode  as  the  food  and  pillar  of  his  soul,  enthusiastic 
love  for  the  Lord  God,  and  joy  in  His  presence;  and  this 
was  true  even  when  Nathan's  sword-tongue  pierced  his  soul. 

Therefore  it  was,  oh  David,  rare  man  of  God,  that, 
although  thine  abhorrent  sins  eclipsed  the  Father's  face  and 
darkened  thine  own  for  a  brief  space,  it  was  not  a  total 
eclipse,  for  in  the  nearest  approach  to  totality  there  were 
straggling  rays  of  covenanted  mercy  shooting  forth  from  the 
corona;  and  therefore  thy  face,  oh,  David,  begins  to  shine 
with  restored  trust,  hope  and  praise. 

Truly  thou  art  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  (Praise),  and  truly 
the  last  five  verses  of  thy  penitential  song  are  but  the  begin- 
ning of  a  life-long  Magnificat,  perhaps  not  less  exalted  in  its 
strain  than  that  of  a  later  descendant  of  the  same  tribe  of 
Praise,  who  was  none  other  than  the  Virgin  Mother  of 
Jesus  the  Messiah,  "made  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to 
the  flesh." 

Verse  1 6.  "For  Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice,  else 
would  I  give  (it),  in  burnt  offering  Thou  delightest  not." 

David  here  refers  to  the  butcher-like,  formal,  ritualistic 
slaying  of  animals  in  the  temple,  and  which  was  not  mingled 
with  penitence  and  gratitude. 

Verse  1 7.  "The  sacrifices  of  God  (are)  a  broken 
spirit;  a  heart  broken  and  crushed,  (oh)  God,  Thou  wilt 
not  despise." 


138  Selected  psalms  anD  6ionogtapt)0 

This  is  but  an  extension  of  the  thought  expressed  in  the 
preceding  verse.  The  slaughter  and  crushing  out  of  the  life 
of  the  innocent  animal  is  only  pleasing  to  God  when  the 
guilty  man  offering  this  substitutionary  sacrifice,  himself  comes 
with  a  broken  heart  and  crushed  soul,  the  vital  substance  giv- 
ing spiritual  significance  to  the  otherwise  hollow,  dead  forms 
of  the  ritual. 

Thus  there  is  a  perpetual  thank-offering  allied  to  a  per- 
petual joy  and  praise. 

Verse  1  8.  "Do  good  in  thy  favor  to  Zion;  Thou  wilt 
build  the  walls  of  Jerusalem." 

When  individual  Jews  are  built  up  in  their  most  holy 
faith,  love  and  zealous  works  issuing  from  a  repentance  unto 
life,  then  can  and  will  be  blessed  the  entire  nation,  and 
internal  spiritual  prosperity  will  eventually  bring  in  its  train 
an  external  and  material  prosperity. 

The  spiritual  intelligence  and  assurance  of  faith,  which 
fearlessly  asserts  the  restored  welfare  of  Zion,  once  diminished 
perchance  for  a  while  by  the  sins  of  the  King;  and  the  re- 
building of  the  protective  walls  of  the  Holy  City,  once  under- 
mined by  the  transgressions  of  David,  bear  witness  to  the 
recuperative  joy  animating  the  penitent,  forgiven,  trustful,  and 
(through  the  substitutionary  righteousness  of  Jehovah — 
Jesus)  the  guiltless,  spotless,  white  Theocratic  King  in 
Jerusalem. 

Verse  19.  "Then  shalt  Thou  be  pleased  with  sacrifices 
of  righteousness,  burnt  offering  and  holocaust;  then  shall  they 
offer  on  thine  altar  bullocks." 

Alexander  calls  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  holocaust 
translates  one  Hebrew  word,  meaning  a  sacrifice  entirely 
consumed. 

"Then,"  ah!  Then,  after  the  fresh  discovery  of  the 
sinfulness  of  sin — of  the  depth,  height,  length  and  breadth  of 
our  sinfulness — after  a  more  radical  self-loathing  and  con- 
fession to  God,  after  the  trustful,  thankful  acceptance  of 
God's  offered  mercy,  then  let  innocent  victims  be  offered  in 


IftetK  jfteOericfe  La  Eue  i&ing     139 

my  place,  for  no  more  will  they  be  vain  oblations;  for  the 
more  frequently  offered,  the  clearer  will  I  see  that  though  my 
sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  become  as  white  as  snow,  when  con- 
fessed over  the  head  of  that  Lamb,  the  Great  Judge  accepts 
as  the  sinner's  substitute. 

A.    B.    K. 


140  Selected  psalms  and  eiionogtapi)0 


$&ilm  lot. 


Title. — The  King  through  His  ruling  glorifies  the  King  of 
Kings. 

This  psalm  is  an  example  of  the  purely  lyric  code. 
The  abruptness  of  its  close  is  remarkable  and  would  be 
intolerable  in  a  literary  age.  Not  having  in  mind  any 
audience,  the  psalmist  pours  himself  forth  and  adds  nothing 
to  the  utterance,  of  impulse  to  explain  their  character.  One 
must  be  transported  into  his  feeling  in  order  to  enter  into 
what  he  says.  Now  what  is  the  feeling?  It  is  the  Kingly 
feeling — the  Kingly  feeling  of  David.  Saul  could  never 
have  written  such  a  psalm  as  this  for  though  as  a  religionist 
he  was  a  servant  of  Jehovah,  he  was  not  Jehovah's  servant 
in  his  Kingly  station.  But  David,  lowliest  when  he  was 
mightiest,  made  himself  a  royal  servant — an  implement  used 
by  his  God.  In  giving  out  then  that  he  himself  is  something, 
he  means  to  intimate  that  his  Master  is  more. 

Verse  1 .  By  David.  A  psalm. — "Mercy  and  judg- 
ment will  I  sing;  to  Thee  Jehovah,  will  I  play  (or  make 
music)." 

This  is  a  song,  it  is  poetry  and  not  prose.  Utterances 
full  of  feeling  do  not  constitute  poetry.  Feeling  must  have 
enkindled  the  imagination,  and  through  the  seen  must  appear 
the  unseen,  in  the  individual  the  universal;  and  yet  what 
is  there  in  this  psalm  more  than  the  prosaic  utterances  of  a 
state  paper.  It  must  be  more,  for  David  warns  us  by  sig- 
nificantly telling  us  "this  is  poetry,  not  prose."  Yet  did 
we  have  nothing  more  than  this  it  would  remain  still  nothing 
but  prose  to  us.  The  pattern  upon  the  great  tissue  of  Scrip- 
ture is  splendid  and  complicated  and  no  one  part  of  it  can 
be  understood  without  taking  in  the  whole.  And  when 
we  see  dimly  shadowed  forth  in  the  Prophets  an  ideal  Jeru- 
salem that  corresponds  to  the  real,  called  definitely  by  Paul 


Eeto.  jFreDerick  La  I&ue  Ifting     141 

in  Galatians,  the  Jerusalem  that  is  above,  and  shown  in  the 
Apocalypse  as  descending  to  earth,  and  when  we  see,  that 
according  to  scriptures  (Rev.  3:7;  Luke  1  :  32)  the  King- 
dom of  God  has  come  when  the  Kingdom  of  David  is 
realized,  then  only  does  this  dry  document  become  a  song. 
Gem  it  may  be,  but  it  flashes  only  when  the  prophetic  ray 
falls  upon  it.  As  in  the  blade  we  see  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear,  so  in  the  little  city  and  petty  Kingdom  over  which  he 
rules,  David  saw  that  glorious,  all-embracing  Kingdom,  into 
which  it  would  be  transformed.  Dim  sight  as  through  a 
fog  doubtless,  still  it  made  divine  the  commonplace  details 
of  the  kingly  office  and  turned  his  words  about  them  into 
a  song. 

But  "mercy  and  judgment"  are  said  to  be  the  subject 
of  the  song,  and  when  we  look  at  the  psalm  there  seems 
nothing  at  all  resembling  mercy  except  in  Verse  6,  and  that 
hardly  answers  the  character  of  mercy,  but  is  rather  the 
reward  of  faithfulness.  But  the  faithful  would  never  have 
been  rewarded,  they  would  have  been  crushed  out  were  it 
not  for  the  judgments  of  the  Lord  that  removed  the  wicked. 
Plants  in  the  garden  grow  by  their  inherent  vigor,  but  they 
would  have  no  chance  to  grow  if  the  weeds  were  not  re- 
moved. And  so  the  judgments  of  the  Lord  upon  his  enemies 
are  mercies  to  his  friends,  and  so  in  this  song,  judgment  and 
mercy  are  one.  "To  Thee  O  Lord  will  I  play."  The 
grave  and  solemn  terms,  "mercy  and  judgment,"  so  often 
used  to  designate  the  greatest  attributes  of  God,  would  be 
enough  to  show  that  David  was  not  going  to  talk  merely 
about  himself.  But  he  will  have  no  mistake,  and  says, 
"Thou  knowest,  O  Jehovah,  that  I  mean  not  to  praise 
myself.  The  axe  boasts  not  itself,  against  him  that  heweth 
therewith.  The  saw  does  not  magnify  itself  against  him 
that  shaketh  it."  (Isaiah  10:  15). 

Verse  2.  "I  will  act  wisely  in  a  perfect  way.  When 
wilt  Thou  come  to  me?  I  will  walk  in  the  integrity  of  my 
heart  within  my  house." 


142  Selected  P0almg  anD  ©onograpfjs 

After  this  clear  declaration  of  his  temper,  David  does 
not  fear  to  be  misunderstood,  even  if  he  does  say,  "I  will  do 
this,"  and  "I  will  do  that,"  as  if  he  referred  only  to  himself 
and  as  if  the  strength  to  do  is  his  own.  But  the  first  two 
clauses  of  the  verse,  manifest  this  independent  dependence 
of  David.  In  the  first  he  gathers  himself  up  to  carry  out  in 
all  shrewdness,  a  pure  course  of  action;  in  the  second  he 
cries  out,  "Leave  me  not  to  myself."  David  says,  "When 
wilt  Thou  come  unto  me,"  as  if  God  was  not  present  with 
him.  This  is  remarkable  in  a  poem  in  which  the  psalmist 
makes  his  own  acts  the  effulgence  of  God's  glory.  It  marks 
the  consciousness  of  David  that,  though  he  was  God's  theo- 
cratic representative  and  justified  in  assuming  that  God  acted 
by  him,  still  he  might  be  left  to  his  own  unaided  human 
strength.  There  is  no  fanaticism  about  this  piece.  Trust  in 
the  living  God,  is  the  very  basis  of  it.  And  now  in  the 
third  clause  the  Royal  Magistrate  begins  His  wise  and  per- 
fect course  of  action,  where  it  ought  to  begin,  at  home. 
Good  laws  and  their  energetic  administration  are  excellent, 
but  if  the  monarch  who  stands  up  for  God  would  be  really 
efficient,  he  must  set  a  good  example.  His  household  should 
be  the  type  of  which  he  would  have  his  kingdom  be.  There 
should  prevail  the  same  law  of  justice  and  right  that  he 
imposes  on  the  community.  David  did  not  always  act  up 
to  this  high  principle.  He,  on  one  notable  occasion,  pros- 
tituted his  high  office  to  his  sin,  but  in  the  main,  he  was  a 
pure  man  and  a  disinterested  king.  He  had  unruly  and 
wicked  sons,  but  although  he  had  a  very  affectionate  heart, 
it  is  evident  that  he  did  rule  them  strictly.  But  we  are  not 
concerned  so  much  with  the  fulfilment  of  this  resolution  as 
with  the  resolve  itself.  It  is  a  model  for  a  ruler,  and  woe  to 
the  kings  that  have  ruled  for  themselves  and  not  for  their 
people;  woe  to  the  official  in  the  church  or  state  who  uses 
his  position  to  further  himself  or  his  family.  Woe  to  the 
minister  who  stands  in  God's  place  before  his  people,  who 
does  not  in  the  first  place  seek  to  rebuke  and  purify  himself. 


Eetn  jFreDericfe  &a  Eue  Mm     143 

Verses  3  and  4.  "I  will  not  set  before  my  eye  a  word 
of  Belial ;  the  doing  of  apostasies  I  hate,  it  shall  not  cleave  to 
me.  A  crooked  heart  shall  depart  from  me;  evil  I  will  not 
know." 

The  four  clauses  of  these  verses  are  each  susceptible 
of  a  double  explanation,  e.  g.  First,  I  will  not  propose  to 
myself  any  wicked  plan,  or  I  will  not  tolerate  an  evil  pur- 
pose in  others.  Second,  I  hate  to  apostatise,  I  will  not  be 
stained  with  it,  or  I  hate  to  have  others  apostatise  and  will 
not  share  in  the  guilt  by  overlooking  it.  Third,  I  will  not 
be  perverse,  or  I  will  not  put  up  with  perversity.  Fourth, 
I  will  not  sympathize  with  an  evil  thing  or  person,  or  I 
will  not  show  favor  to  an  evil  thing  or  person.  The  most 
natural  and  immediate  application  is  doubtless  to  himself 
personally,  but  there  is  something  about  the  words  that  sug- 
gest an  equivoque.  Indeed,  David  could  hardly  have  made 
any  resolutions  with  regard  to  his  personal  conduct  that  did 
not  involve  official  conduct  as  well.  His  rule  was  of  such 
a  personal  character  that  his  moral  state  was  reflected  at  once 
upon  the  government  and  community.  He  was  not  only  an 
absolute  monarch,  but  he  was  forming  a  nation,  and  this 
made  his  life  so  potent  for  good  or  ill.  Ordinary  men  may 
seclude  their  evil  or  their  good,  especially  their  good.  But 
to  David  no  seclusion  was  possible.  If  he  was  going  to  be 
a  holy  man  he  must  do  his  duty  by  his  family  and  strive  to 
make  that  holy  likewise,  and  to  an  oriental  monarch  it  was 
impossible  to  draw  the  line  where  his  family  ended  and  the 
community  began.  So  that  of  necessity  these  clauses  must 
bear  not  only  a  personal,  but  official  meaning,  just  as  of 
necessity,  every  impulse  of  David  towards  God  and  right- 
eousness implied  the  impressing  of  that  impulse  upon  the 
community.  This  is  seen  in  the  extraordinary  instance  of 
the  fifty-first  psalm,  where  David  turns  his  own  repentance 
into  a  form  of  repentance  for  the  community. 

Verse  5.     "Slandering  in  secret  his  fellow;  him  I  will 
destroy ; 
"Lofty  of  eyes  and  wide  of  heart;  him  I  will  not  bear." 


144  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpfja 

The  equivoque  of  the  third  and  fourth  verses  serve  as 
a  transition  to  this  in  which  he  speaks  alone  of  his  official 
position. 

In  the  declaration  to  punish  slander  and  pride,  David 
selects  the  two  things,  that  tend  most  to  evil  in  an  oriental 
absolute  monarchy.  The  king  cannot  look  to  everything 
himself  he  must  trust  others.  And,  since  all  offices  are 
held  from  him,  the  rewards  of  successful  slander  are  very 
great  and  immediate.  He  who  gains  the  ear  of  the  mon- 
arch has  all  rivals  at  his  mercy.  Suspicion,  chronic  suspicion 
may  be  said  to  be  the  curse  of  such  kingdom,  and  this  it 
is  which  enables  the  meanest  and  wickedest  of  men  to  rise 
to  the  highest  positions.  Again,  if  slander  tends  to  make 
the  working  of  an  absolute  monarchy  evil, pride — that  is  an 
attitude  of  pride  towards  the  monarch — strikes  at  its  very 
existence.  The  very  idea  of  such  a  government  involves 
absolute  submission  to  the  will  of  the  king.  No  matter 
how  high  spirited,  how  "wide  of  heart,"  a  man  may  per- 
sonally be;  no  matter  how  he  may  lord  it  over  others,  to- 
wards his  Lord  he  must  be  lowly.  An  abyss  separates  the 
king  from  the  highest  of  his  nobles,  for,  great  though  they 
may  be,  they  are  his  creatures.  Nothing  is  dreaded  so  much 
or  crushed  so  quickly  as  a  spirit  of  independence.  And  it 
may  be  said  that  slander  and  pride  had  given  David  especial 
trouble.  In  his  youth  as  annointed  heir,  apparently  he  was 
persecuted  by  Saul  because  the  jealously  of  the  king  had 
been  inflamed  by  slanderers,  and  it  was  the  wild  pride  of 
the  king  that  prevented  that  naturally  generous  man  from 
submitting  with  a  good  grace  to  the  preference  of  God 
for  David.  And  so  in  later  years,  when  by  the  foundation 
of  a  metropolitan  city  and  ritual,  he  began  a  new  develop- 
ment in  the  life  of  the  people  of  God,  it  was  slander  and 
tribe  pride  that  especially  stood  in  his  way.  As  slanderers 
said  before  to  Saul,  "He  will  hasten  to  seize  what  has 
been  given  him";  so  now  they  said  Judah  is  made  dominant 
over  the  other  tribes,  Jerusalem  monopolizes  all  the  religious 


1  Iftetn  jFtederick  La  Eue  ifting     145 

honor.  And  now  as  respects  worse  movements  in  the 
Church  of  God.  These  two  evils  are  the  very  creators  of 
that  immobility  and  violent  opposition  that  so  prevent  happy 
reforming  changes.  That  which  David  promises  to  do  will  be 
done  in  truth,  when  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  come.  No 
slanderer  will  be  there,  no  food  of  pride  shall  thither  ascend. 

Verse  6.     "My  eyes  (are)  on  the  faithful  of  the  land 
to  dwell  with  me  (one), 
"Walking  in  a  perfect  way,  He  shall  serve  me." 

We  have  shown  that  the  whole  lyric  force  of  this  psalm 
depends  upon  David's  assuming  the  position  of  God;  in  this 
verse  he  seems  to  assume  more  than  a  royal  state.  The  ex- 
pressions in  the  first  sentence,  the  watchful  eye  over  the  land 
and  the  reward  of  faithfulness — dwelling  with  him — both 
expression  and  attitude  recall  to  readers  of  Scripture,  God 
in  His  relations  to  His  chosen  people.  The  coincidence  be- 
tween the  first  clause  of  the  second  verse  and  the  second 
sentence  in  this  is  remarkable.  It  seems  to  assume  that  the 
relation  between  his  servants,  and  subjects,  and  himself,  is  the 
same  with  the  relation  between  himself  and  his  God.  This 
may  be  said  to  be  true  merely  to  the  idealizing  imagination, 
but  it  is  true  in  reality  to  Faith.  David's  position  was  hon- 
orable and  awful  because  he  not  only  was  God's  representa- 
tive, but  an  inspired  ruler.  God  not  only  wrote  "upon  his 
heart"  the  forms  and  measurements  of  the  Temple,  not  only 
did  the  Holy  Spirit  speak  by  him  in  the  Psalms,  but  his 
ruling  was  by  the  Holy  Spirit  as  well.  His  architecture  was 
Divine  Architecture,  his  poetry  was  Divine  Poetry,  his  gov- 
ernment was  Divine  Government.  And  it  is  in  this  point 
of  view  that  what  might  be  otherwise  considered  an  ostenta- 
tious glorification  of  himself  becomes  an  ascription  to  God, 
since  it  declares  what  God  will  do  by  him.  If  the  ordinance 
of  a  heathen  ruler  could  be  the  ordinance  of  God  (Rom. 
13:  142)  with  much  more  propriety  might  the  chiefs  of  a 
nation  of  priests  be  called,  in  their  official  capacity,  "God's," 
(John   10:  34  and  35.      Proverbs  8:  2  and  6.      Exodus 


146  ^electen  psalms  anD  sponograp&s 

22:  9),  and  surely  in  the  inspired  deliverer,  governor,  poet 
and  ritualist  of  Israel  this  assumption  of  a  divine  character 
as  ruler,  so  far  from  transgressing  the  lowliness  proper  to  a 
creature,  is  of  itself  an  expression  of  the  most  profound  hu- 
mility. As  when  the  Apostle  Paul  said,  "I  can  do  all 
things,"  it  was  no  self-assertion,  but  an  acknowledgement  of 
his  dependence.  With  the  Psalmist  it  is  even  a  song  of 
praise.  We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  prophetic  character 
of  such  an  utterance  as  this,  it  will  be  only  when  the  perfect 
governor,  the  King  Emanuel  shall  reign,  that  what  David 
resolves  to  do  shall  be  done.  And  it  is  the  sight  of  this 
time  and  the  consciousness  that  he  says  more  than  meets 
the  ear,  that  not  only  makes  this  a  song,  but  must  have 
glorified  the  every  day  acts  of  David's  life  and  lighted  them 
up  with  more  than  an  imagined  ideal,  an  ideal  which  he 
was  sure  of  seeing  realized.  And  thus  every  Christian  man 
is  privileged  to  feel.  In  all  that  he  does  he  feels  that  there 
is  a  divine  acting.  What  he  does  will  remain  forever.  In 
what  he  effects  he  sees  as  through  lens  a  work  more  glorious. 
In  feeble  results  he  can  find  traces  and  beginnings  of  a  per- 
fect society,  a  State  where  the  worthy  alone  are  called  to 
power.  Wherever  and  whatever  he  is,  the  boundless  realm 
of  hope  is  his  assured  possession.  In  this  verse  we  see  a 
watchful  governor  calling  the  best  to  his  service.  Surely 
nothing  could  better  characterize  a  perfect  rule.  There  is 
the  absence  of  evils,  the  oppression  and  speculation  of  happy 
officials,  the  mismanagement  of  the  stupid,  there  is  economy, 
efficiency,  the  intelligent  execution  of  large  and  beneficient 
plans,  no  "partial  frustration"  now,  but  perfect  realization  of 
the  idea  of  the  Governor.  And  since  the  best  serve,  every 
one  finds  his  place;  no  cutting  blocks  with  razors.  The  best 
reward  of  service  is  from  the  service.  The  able  man  is 
found  work  to  task  his  ability.  No  need  of  the  fretting  en- 
deavor to  appear  fit.  It  will  only  be  encumbent  upon  men 
to  be  fit.  The  precious  talents  that  now  are  rendered  us, 
less  by  stupidity  in  power,  the  finest  and  rarest  gifts,  will  be 


Eefcn  jfreDerick  £a  I&ue  ifting     147 

called  into  the  service  of  the  community,  too  coarse  now 
to  be  served  by  them.  Then  there  will  be  the  stimulus  of 
sure  and  just  promotion.  Thrilling  through  society  will  go 
the  promise  of  the  best  of  all  rewards — position  where  every 
gift  shall  tell  on  men  for  good.  Ambition  will  not  be  the 
perilous  dice-play  it  is  now;  the  bright  eyed  boy  will  have 
something  to  look  forward  to,  happy  time,  when  woman  can 
at  last  come  forward  from  privacy,  and  clothed  in  the  robes 
and  with  all  the  sweet  honors  of  womanhood,  take  part  ac- 
cording to  her  gifts  in  the  business  of  the  outer  world.  But 
we  are  looking  far  ahead.  No  doubt  David's  government 
was  in  all  these  respects  a  great  advance  upon  that  which  was 
before  him.  A  wondrous  revelation  it  was  of  what  govern- 
ment and  society  might  be,  but  to  realize  perfectly  all  this 
it  will  need  a  greater  governor  than  David  and  a  wondrous 
change  of  circmstances.  After  that  great  Governor,  after 
that  wondrous  time  David  reached  forth  in  all  his  acts,  and 
institutions  and  in  poetic  vision  sees  it  and  sings  it  here.  We 
may  do  it  in  assured  hope  that  his  coming  and  the  great  res- 
titution draws  nigh. 

Verse  7.  "Not  in  the  inside  of  my  house  shall  dwell 
practicing  fraud,  telling  lies;  not  settled  shall  he  be  before 
My  eyes." 

Here,  one  would  think,  the  psalm  properly  comes  to 
an  end.  The  judgments  that  he  was  to  sing  has  culminated 
in  the  great  aim  of  judgment  in  the  uplifting  of  the  right  and 
the  ordering  of  the  kingdom.  But  just  here,  as  we  find  again 
and  again  in  the  psalms,  the  cadence  is  avoided,  the  psalm 
ends  in  the  storm  and  struggle,  in  which  the  singer  finds  him- 
self at  the  time  he  sings.  The  lyrical  unity  here,  as  often  is, 
that  of  one  predominant  feeling;  the  resolve  of  the  King  to 
crush  out  evil.  Not  yet  has  arrived  the  beautiful  time  hinted 
at  in  the  sixth  verse,  "He  must  be  up  to  strike  down  the 
monsters  and  even  in  his  song  he  girds  himself  up  and  ad- 
dresses himself  to  the  work.  The  terrible  power  that  a 
wicked  favorite  wields  rushes  upon  his  mind  and  the  resolve 


148  Selected  p$alm$  ana  S@onogtap!)0 

follows  that  such  a  one  shall  not  gain  his  ear.  The  confi- 
dent strength  of  the  assertion  implies  more  than  that  David 
is  going  forward  in  the  strength  of  God,  it  also  intimates  that 
only  the  Messianic  significance  will  fill  out  the  meaning  of 
these  words,  which  can  be  true  of  no  government  but  that 
of  Him  who  knows  what  is  in  man.  Although  in  this  verse 
there  is  a  repetition  it  is  a  variation.  In  the  fifth  verse  slan- 
derers were  to  be  cut  off;  here  the  most  dangerous  of  slander- 
ers, one  who  has  the  monarch's  ear  is  to  be  cast  out,  and  in 
the  last  clause  the  punishment  is  reduced  to  a  mere  negative, 
while  the  position  that  slanderers  often  (e.  g.  Haman)  hold 
is  made  still  stronger,  as  if  a  deeper  impression  of  the  injury 
that  the  slanderer  could  work  fills  his  mind.  It  is,  as  it  were, 
a  reaction  from  the  sixth  verse.  "The  good  shall  serve  me; 
liars  shall  not,  as  they  often  do,  dwell  in  my  house;  they 
shall  not  be  maintained  and  upheld  permanently,  by  me." 
There  is  an  intimation  here  in  this  deliberate  choice,  that 
monarchs  are  not  always  deceived  in  their  favorite,  but  know- 
ing what  they  are,  keep  them  still,  because  they  are  con- 
venient to  them  or  minister  to  their  pleasure. 

Verse  8.  "In  the  morning  will  I  destroy  all  the  wicked 
of  the  land  (so  as)  to  cast  off  from  the  City  of  Jehovah,  all 
workers  of  iniquity." 

The  first  expression  is  equivalent  to  "every  morning 
early,  I  will  begin  to  destroy."  It  is  the  main  business  of  the 
king  to  put  down  evil  men  not  for  his  own  comfort  and 
safety,  but  to  make  the  city  called  by  God's  name,  God's 
city  indeed.  This  motive  adds  zeal  and  energy  to  his 
action,  but  would  prevent  all  wanton  cruelty.  He  who 
goes  forward  in  God's  strength,  for  His  sake  will  go  for- 
ward in  love  for  his  fellowmen.  The  coincidences  in  lan- 
guage are  striking,  act  "in  a  perfect  way"  (verse  two),  walk 
"in  a  perfect  way"  (verse  three),  fixed  before  my  eyes, 
(verse  seven),  faithful  of  the  land  (verse  six),  wicked  of 
the  lamb  (verse  eight).  These  coincidences  in  expression 
are  remarkable  in  so  short  a  psalm  and  are  indicative  of  close 


Eetn  jfreDerick  La  Eue  ifting     149 

analogies  between  the  phrases  in  which  they  are  found.  He 
views  himself  as  standing  in  the  same  relations  to  the  Lord, 
as  his  servants  to  him.  Thus  his  choice  of  one  walking  in 
a  perfect  way  (verse  six),  to  be  his  servant,  is  entirely  ana- 
logous to  his  (devotion)  choice  of  himself  to  God's  perfect 
service.  His  determination  to  call  the  faithful  to  dwell  with 
him  (verse  six),  is  entirely  analogous  to  his  petition  that  the 
Lord  will  come  to  him  and  dwell  with  him.  (verse  two). 
So  also  the  exclusion  of  the  liar  from  his  house  (verse  seven) 
is  analogous  to  the  exclusion  of  the  liar  from  his  heart  (verse 
two),  and  the  denial  of  his  deliberate  favor  to  the  liar  (verse 
seven)  is  analogous  to  the  refusal  to  propose  for  himself  or 
to  favor  in  others  evil  plans,  for  he  who  entertains  evil  men 
will  soon  entertain  their  plans.  The  ending  of  this  psalm 
with  a  renewed  resolve  to  destroy  the  wicked  is  strikingly 
illustrative  of  the  position  of  David.  His  duty  consisted  in 
the  crushing  of  evil,  whether  in  the  form  of  Philistines  or 
rebels;  he  was  constructive  as  well,  but  this  was  his  hardest 
and  most  imperative  duty,  and  the  office  of  the  magistrate 
through  all  time  is  mainly  to  put  down  wickedness.  "He 
beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain."  If  the  magistrate  would 
ever  be  a  terror  to  all  evil  doers,  society  would  of  itself  take 
on  the  most  beneficient  forms,  the  laissez  faire  policy,  would 
then  be  the  best.  Construction  seems  specially  needed  in  the 
presence  of  evil ;  were  evil  away  society  would  construct  itself. 

"There's  not  the  smallest  orb  that  thou  beholdest 

But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
*  *  *  # 

Such  has  money,  is  in  immortal  souls 

But  while  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay, 

Doth  closely  hem  us  in,  we  cannot  bear  it." 

For  the  individual  Christian,  the  main  work  is  to  put 
down  sin,  that  once  away,  the  heart  seeks  its  God,  and 
through  seeking  its  God  orders  its  life.  And  in  his  magis- 
trate's position  of  citizen,  the  Christian  ought  to  feel  that  it 
is  not  enough  if  he  himself  does  right;  he  must  arm  himself 


150  Selected  Psalms  ana  ^onograpfjs: 

to  put  down  evil.  It  is  at  the  present  time  and  in  this 
country  that  we  need  to  learn  this.  Good  men  are  afraid  to 
fight  evil  in  the  shape  of  evil  men  or  else  they  take  as  their 
sole  duty  that  of  private  good  living.  We  need  to  catch 
some  of  the  spirit  of  David  and  resolve  to  destroy  the  wicked 
of  the  land.  There  is  too  often  a  cowardly  surrender  or  else 
a  selfish  shrinking  from  trouble  and  thus  it  is  that  the  work 
mounts  up  upon  the  high  places  of  the  land.  If  we  only 
would  take  upon  our  lips  the  "I  will,"  of  David  and  move 
on  in  the  strength  of  God,  our  resolutions  and  plans  would 
be  songs  of  praise  to  God  and  our  lives  the  manifestation  of 
His  glory. 


Eetn  jFreOerick  La  iRue  ifting     151 


Jgalm  116. 


A  person  of  a  princely  and  representative  character  (as 
shown  by  vv.  14th  and  15th)  is  suddenly  roused  from  se- 
curity by  the  faithlessness  of  those  around  him,  which  threat- 
ens his  life,  fills  him  with  sorrow  and  exposes  him  to  the 
peril  of  error. 

Overwhelmed,  he  calls  upon  God,  and  is  delivered. 
His  heart  is  filled  by  an  experience  of  love  strangely  new; 
he  feels  that  he  can  re-enter  the  security  of  trust,  and  de- 
clares that  he  will  manifest  his  gratitude  to  the  Lord  by 
continued  faith,  and  by  such  a  public  acknowledgment  of 
His  mercy  as  shall  show,  not  only  his  thankfulness,  but  his 
subservience  to  God  in  his  princely  station,  and  his  devo- 
tion to  his  worship  and  people. 

Verse  1 .  "I  love,  because  Jehovah  hears  my  voice,  my 
supplications." 

The  word  "love"  stands  in  the  original  without  an 
object,  thus: — "I  love,  because  the  Lord,"  etc.  Of  course, 
the  Lord  was  the  object,  but  attention  is  intended  to  be 
called  to  the  emotion  specially.  The  strict  grammatical  form,, 
"I  have  loved,"  rather  indicates  this,  for  from  the  rest  of 
the  psalm  it  is  manifest  that  the  feeling  is  present  at  the 
time.  The  manifestation  of  the  feeling  would  require  the 
present  and  an  object,  while  the  past  is  logically  proper  in 
describing  a  feeling,  for  while  it  is  described,  it  cannot  be 
present  to  the  mind.  And  well  may  attention  be  called  to 
this  feeling  of  love  towards  a  deity.  Throughout  the  Old 
Testament  history  till  the  time  of  David,  we  hear  little  else 
about  the  love  of  God  than  the  command  to  love  him,  till 
we  reach  the  times  of  David.  Doubtless  there  was  love,  but 
awe,  reverence  and  dread  were  the  predominating  feelings 
till  the  psalms  of  David  struck  another  note,  a  note  of  love. 

These  affectionate  songs,  which  the  psalmist  made  for 
public  worship,  must  have  come  to  the  ears  of  the  worship- 


152  Selected  psalms  ano  sponogtap&s 

pers  like  a  new  revelation  of  God.  And  even  at  the  time 
when  this  psalm  was  written,  late  though  it  was  in  all  prob- 
ability in  the  history  of  Israel,  the  feeling  of  love  to  God  had 
not  the  predominance  even  in  the  minds  of  faithful  men  over 
the  feeling  of  dread.  And  heathendom,  with  all  its  "fair 
humanities,"  did  not  present  one  God  that  the  human  heart 
could  love,  or  in  its  literature  one  expression  of  love  to  its 
Gods. 

We  are  now  for  ages  familiar  with  the  idea  of  love  to 
God,  but  we  must  not  forget  that  it  is  a  sublime  point  that 
the  human  affections  have  reached  when  they  can  grasp  the 
Deity. 

Whoever  the  writer  of  this  psalm  was,  though  he 
evidently  had  exercised  faith  in  God,  and  had  been  a  true 
servant, — still  he  is  surprised  to  find  himself  standing  in  a 
nearer  and  dearer  relation  to  the  Almighty,  being  surprised 
into  love  by  the  mercies  he  has  received.  "My  heart  has 
been  and  is  now  thrilled  with  love,"  and  why?  Here  note 
the  strict  grammatical  form, — "because  the  Lord  will  hear." 

Not  merely  the  experience  of  an  isolated  mercy  fills 
him  with  love,  but  because  that  mercy  has  revealed  the  fact 
to  him  that  he  has  a  sure  hold  on  God's  sympathies.  It  is 
the  knowledge  of  the  tenderness  and  mercy  of  the  Lord  that 
calls  forth  his  warm  emotion. 

Verse  2.  "For  He  has  inclined  His  ear  to  me,  and  in 
my  days  I  will  call  (upon  Him)." 

The  inclining  of  God's  ear  denotes  that  the  cry  sent 
up  to  Him  was  distant  and  faint,  and  indicates  the  lowliness, 
and  perhaps  the  sinfulness  of  the  petitioner,  and  the  weak- 
ness of  his  faith.  He  said  to  himself,  "Perhaps  God  will 
hear,"  and  cried;  now  he  says,  "God  will  always  hear," 
and  as  long  as  I  live  I  will  call  upon  Him."  The  last  clause 
marks  not  only  his  faith,  but  his  love;  for  it  is  an  expression 
of  adherence  to  God  amidst  a  world  of  idolatry.  Perhaps 
this  adherence  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  verb  "call," 
like  the  verb  "love"  in  the  first  verse,  has  no  object.     Atten- 


Ret),  jFreOerick  La  Eue  i&ing     153 

tion  is  confined  to  the  act  of  calling  specially.  Just  as  in 
the  first  verse  to  the  act  of  loving.  As  if  he  said,  "therefore 
I  will  perform  the  act  of  calling,"  etc.  This  explanation 
elevates  an  expression  of  extreme  self-consciousness  into  an 
act  of  loyalty  and  worship  and  communion.  One  cannot 
help  putting  the  two  expressions,  "I  love,"  and  "therefore  I 
will  call,"  together  in  another  way,  which  is  perhaps  the 
special  way  intended.  The  "call"  may  thus  be  more  than 
a  conscious  expression  of  love  by  a  loyal  application  to  the 
official  King  of  Israel, — one  who  has  shown  himself  great 
and  good  in  the  past;  but  may  be  an  unconscious  manifesta- 
tion of  love  by  confidence  in  him  whom  he  knows  loves  him, 
— a  personal  dealing  with  God. 

Verse  3.  "The  bands  of  death  inclosed  me,  and  the 
pangs  of  hell  found  me;  distress  and  grief  I  find." 

Whether  the  Hebrew  word  translated  "Sorrows"  be 
"bands"  (Alexander)  or  "snares"  (Maurer),  it  describes 
well  the  helpless  position  of  one  not  only  in  danger  of  death, 
but  perfectly  helpless,  as  a  man  bound  hand  and  foot,  as  a 
snared  animal  who  can  neither  fight  nor  fly.  So  is  a  man 
situated  upon  whom  disease  has  laid  an  irresistible  hand, 
and  who  says,  "All  is  over,"  or  whom  difficulties  over- 
whelm, whose  life  is  destroyed  and  all  heart  for  living,  or 
whose  sins  make  him  feel  their  mighty  power.  The  "pains 
of  Hell"  are  not  merely  the  sorrows  that  naturally  fill  the 
heart  of  one  whose  many  and  close  ties  to  life,  death  breaks, 
nor  the  awe  and  dread  that  enter  the  mind  from  the  con- 
templation of  the  change  of  worlds;  the  words  "got  hold 
upon"  (Alexander)  "found"  indicate  grim  terrors  approach- 
ing from  the  world  of  spirits  which,  whether  in  health  or 
disease,  manifest  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  death. 

The  last  clause  sets  forth  the  effect  on  the  mind;  the 
same  verb  is  used.  They  "found"  me,  "I  find"  (Alex- 
ander), or  perhaps  better  as  the  Prayer  Book,  "I  shall  find." 
The  awful  expectation  that  is  the  most  poignant  part  of  the 


154  ©elected  psalms  ana  ^onogtapljs 

pains  of  Hell  fill  his  soul.  He  is  not  only  helpless,  hopeless, 
but  all  alive  with  terrible  anticipations. 

Verse  4.  "And  on  the  name  of  Jehovah  I  call:  Oh! 
now,  Jehovah,  deliver  my  soul." 

Now  comes  the  change.  If  we  keep  strictly  to  the 
tense,  which  the  Prayer  Book  does  and  the  others  do  not, 
the  effect  is  very  lyric  and  vivid.  We  are  brought  into  the 
very  scene.  "And  on  the  name  of  Jehovah  I  will  call."  If 
this  were  the  case  of  a  worldly  man,  he  would  despair,  but 
the  extremity  of  earth  begets  power  of  faith.  He  resolves 
to  call,  not  upon  the  Lord,  but  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord 
— that  is,  upon  the  Lord  as  He  has  manifested  Himself  so 
far  to  Israel  or  to  himself.  This  is  faith,  though  not  the 
highest  sort  of  faith. 

It  takes  courage  to  ask  God  to  do  again  what  He  has 
done  once  or  what  He  has  covenanted  to  do.  The  psalmist, 
the  powers  of  Earth  being  against  him,  remembers  the  days 
of  old,  the  wondrous  deliverances  of  his  people,  his  ways  as 
shown  in  the  past,  but  goes  not  beyond  that  bound.  Just 
as  we,  in  our  prayers,  so  often  confine  our  petitions  to  the 
known  ways  of  God  hitherto,  or  the  specific  warrants  of 
Scripture.  In  the  second  verse  the  soul  approaches  God  not 
in  view  alone  of  the  Divine  actualities  of  the  past,  but  the 
Divine  possibilities  of  the  future.  Then  follows  the  petition 
— short  indeed. 

Verse  5.  "Gracious  (is)  Jehovah  and  righteous,  and 
our  God  shows  pity." 

Well  for  a  soul  in  its  extremity,  if  it  could  feel  that 
it  deserved  a  better  fate.  But  his  faith  had  not  only  to 
struggle  with  the  terrors  of  earth  and  the  grave,  but  with  a 
guilty  feeling.  Though  he  may  not  have  deserved  evil  at 
the  hands  of  man,  yet  it  often  happens  that  in  the  twilight 
of  earth,  sins  remembered,  start  out,  gleaming  like  stars  from 
the  far  forgotten  distance.  Humbly  he  calls,  tenderly  he 
acknowledges  the  mercy.  Gracious  is  the  Lord,  though  He 
allowed  me  to  fall  into  trouble,  for  out  of  the  eater  came 


I&etn  ^Frederick  £a  Eue  i&ing     155 

forth  meat;  righteous  was  He  in  His  permitting  it,  for  as  re- 
spects him,  I  deserved  it;  pitiful  all  the  while,  for  he  held  it 
back,  and  I  was  not  tempted  overmuch.  And  then  again, 
in  my  deliverance  he  was  gracious,  for  I  did  not  merit  it; 
righteous,  for  I  did  not  deserve  destruction  at  the  hand  of 
man;  and  pitiful,  because  it  showed  that  it  was  prompted  by 
the  tender  heart. 

Verse  6.  "A  preserver  of  the  simple  (is)  Jehovah;  I 
was  brought  low,  and  to  me  He  brought  salvation." 

The  simple  is  one  not  crafty,  plots  not,  hardly  plans, 
acts,  not  thinking  of  consequences,  and,  as  implied,  acts  from 
pure  motives.  He  was  a  guileless  ruler.  He  merely  tried 
to  do  right.  Ordinary  rulers  do  not  esteem  this  sufficient; 
they  must  counter-plot,  and  so  it  is  with  private  men.  But 
God  takes  care  of  those  who  for  His  sake  take  no  care  of 
themselves, — and  indeed  if  one  is  influenced  by  the  highest 
impulses,  it  almost  necessitates  a  giving  up  of  all  policy. 

May  not  the  peculiar  grammar  of  the  last  phrase  of 
the  verse,  "He  saved  to  me,"  indicate  that  the  salvation  was 
something  added  to  the  imperilled  believer,  and  not  wrought 
out  through  his  co-operation?  He  remains  "simple,"  even 
in  the  process  of  being  saved,  is  led  as  a  child  by  the  hand 
of  the  Lord. 

Verse  7.  "Return,  oh  my  soul,  unto  thy  rest,  for 
Jehovah  hath  bestowed  upon  thee   (favor)." 

The  natural  conclusion  of  one  having  passed  through 
such  a  peril  would  be,  after  this  I  will  be  watchful,  careful, 
shrewd;  but  he  goes  back  to  his  old  security.  Before,  it 
was  the  security  of  inexperience,  now  it  will  be  the  security 
of  trust. 

Many  a  ruler,  gentle  and  trustful  at  first,  has  been  made 
a  bloody  tyrant  by  once  experiencing  the  faithless  character 
of  the  mob.  Many  a  private  man,  having  undergone  such 
great  peril,  has,  as  it  were,  the  sword  ever  after  hanging  over 
his  head.  This  princely  man  is  not  to  have  his  peace  poi- 
soned by  suspicion,  his  attention  strained  to  detect  and  stop 


156  Selected  psalms  anD  9§onogtapJ)0 

the  beginnings  of  evils.  Through  the  breaking  up  of  his 
earthly  security,  he  has  attained  unto  spiritual  security  that 
cannot  be  disturbed.  He  is  going  to  serve  God  and  his 
fellow  men,  and  care  nothing  as  to  the  resisting  of  evil. 
Would  that  the  church  would  enter  into  her  rest,  merely 
living  a  full  life  and  leaving  the  rest  to  God. 

In  the  latter  clause  we  have  another  verb  without  an 
object; — "dealt  bountifully  with  thee."  Hengstenberg  has 
"gifted  thee."  Then  again  the  attention  is  called  to  the 
action  and  the  actor.  It  is  not  so  much  what  the  Lord  has 
given,  as  that  He  has  really  given ;  has  really  interposed,  added 
something  to  second  causes,  and  revealed  His  hand  in  the 
psalmist's  life.  That,  without  considering  exactly  what  He 
has  done,  is  a  stable  foundation  for  peace.  It  is  when  God 
appears  distant,  inactive,  or  unwilling  to  act  that  we  have 
reason  to  be  disturbed. 

Verse  8.  "For  Thou  hast  delivered  my  soul  from 
death,  my  eye  from  weeping,  my  feet  from  falling." 

Here,  however,  is  a  statement  of  what  God  has  done — 
saved  him  from  death,  sorrow  and  error.  It  is  a  short  des- 
cription of  the  trouble.  It  was  a  deadly  danger,  it  involved 
the  peril  of  that  which  he,  as  a  princely  man,  loved  most, 
the  honor  of  God  and  His  cause  in  Israel,  and  was  a  situa- 
tion in  which  he  might  easily  make  a  mis-step.  God  has 
guided  him  through  it  all,  and, — 

Verse  9.  "I  will  walk  before  Jehovah  in  the  land  of 
life  (or  of  the  living)." 

His  conclusion  is  that  he  will  "walk,"  that  is,  act,  "be- 
fore Jehovah," — that  is,  in  the  presence  of,  and  instinct  with 
His  power  and  favor,  reflect  His  authority  and  glory  among 
men. 

Verse  10.  "I  believe,  for  (thus)  I  speak;  I  was  great- 
ly afflicted." 

Here  is  another  verb  without  an  object — another  ex- 
pression of  self-consciousness  unusual  in  Lyric  poetry.  What 
is  its  purpose  in  the  psalm?     The  first  clause  is  quoted  in  the 


Eetn  jFre&erick  La  I&ue  i&ing     157 

4th  Chapter  of  2nd  Cor.,  verse  1  3th,  in  such  a  way  as 
gives  us  the  key  to  this  extraordinary  introversion.  The 
Apostle  is  showing  that  he  and  his  brethren,  while  in  them- 
selves worthless,  have  granted  to  them  precious  gifts,  just 
as  a  common  vessel  of  earthenware  can  hold  a  quantity  of 
gold.  God's  light  shines  from  them  as  a  jet  of  light  through 
a  porcelain  shade.  They  are  nothing,  and  yet  they  must 
magnify  themselves  because  of  that  which  they  transmit  to 
the  church.  Also  they  are  troubled,  persecuted,  dying,  that 
they  may  minister  the  life  of  Jesus  to  others,  and  the  means 
by  which  this  takes  place  is  their  faith,  which  enables  them 
to  receive  and  convey. 

Now  in  this  psalm  we  have  a  man  who  puts  himself 
forward  as  the  representative  of  the  people,  calls  attention 
to  the  love  that  is  in  his  heart,  to  his  purpose  and  conscious- 
ness of  power  to  worship, — and  strangest  of  all,  in  the  9th 
verse  expresses  his  confidence  that  he  is  to  be  the  recipient 
of  God's  power  and  favor. 

Now  these  words,  "Believe,  for  I  speak"  (thus),  con- 
stitute a  pivotal  declaration  of  humility.  This  confident 
statement  of  mine,  he  says,  is  an  exhibition,  not  of  self-confi- 
dence or  a  feeling  of  self-desert  or  confidence  in  earth,  but 
of  trust  in  God.  The  psalmist  assumes  a  position  of  splen- 
dour at  the  end  of  the  psalm,  but  yet  is  lowly  throughout, 
like  the  Apostle.  This  psalm  exhibits  what  Madam  Guyon 
calls  "the  all  of  God  in  the  nothing  of  the  creature."  Over- 
whelmed with  earthly  trouble  (v.  3)  he  is  nothing;  in  agon- 
izing application  to  God  (v.  4)  he  is  nothing;  simple  and 
delivered  (v.  6)  he  is  nothing;  resting  on  God  (v.  7)  noth- 
ing; delivered  (v.  8)  nothing;  confident  (v.  9)  nothing, 
for  he  believes,  he  trusts,  that  is  the  reason  why  he  speaks 
so.  It  is  simply  belief,  for  when  he  looked  to  earth,  he  was 
"greatly  afflicted." 

Verse.    11.    "I  said  in  my  terror,  all  mankind  (are)    false." 

He  could  draw  no  confidence  from  earth.  How  it 
is   possible   Alexander   can   make  these  words   a   manifesta- 


158  Selected  psalms  anD  aponograpfjis 

tion  of  faith  passes  my  comprehension.  The  last  clause 
evidently  is  a  hint  at  the  character  of  the  trial  he  had  under- 
gone. It  was  something  of  the  character  of  a  treacherous 
revolt  against  the  authority  of  the  psalmist.  This  is  thrown 
in  as  a  confession  of  his  weakness  and  to  heighten  the  ascrip- 
tion of  his  confidence  to  faith. 

When  he  says,  "I  said,"  the  feeling  of  dread  is  never- 
theless present.  The  experience  shadows  him  again  for  the 
time. 

Verse  12.  "How  shall  I  requite  to  Jehovah  all  His 
bestowments  upon  me." 

But  his  gratitude  for  his  deliverance  gives  rise  to  a 
desire  to  make  some  suitable  return  to  the  author  of  his  salva- 
tion. And  out  of  this  lovely  and  noble  emotion  comes  some- 
times one  of  the  subtlest  temptations. 

A  man  may  well  suspect  and  guard  against  his  grate- 
ful feelings,  if  they  lead  to  any  act  that  shall  seem  to  lessen 
the  obligation.  Oftentimes  the  desire  to  make  a  grateful 
return  to  God  is  secretly  a  desire  to  free  oneself  from  the 
burden  of  obligation  to  Him,  and  the  feeling  steals  in  together 
with  our  works  of  service  that  we  have  of  ourselves  some* 
thing  that  is  of  worth  to  God.  But  there  is  no  such  feeling 
here;  as  soon  as  he  seeks  the  means  of  a  worthy  return  to 
God  he  finds  that  the  only  way  for  him  is  to  take  the  cup 
of  salvation  that  God  offers  to  him, — 

Verse  1  3.  "The  cup  of  salvation  will  I  take  up,  and 
on  the  name  of  Jehovah  will  call." 

To  accept  the  blessed  lot — deliverance  and  rest  and 
power  and  honor — which  has  fallen  to  him,  and  then,  just 
as  he  called  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  out  of  adversity  and 
sorrow,  so  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  out  of  his 
prosperity  and  joy,  for  further  blessing.  This  is  lowly  in- 
deed, when  to  return  is  but  to  receive;  it  is  in  harmony  with 
the  lowliness  of  the  whole  psalm — "the  all  of  God  in  the 
nothing  of  the  creature."  And  how  true  this  is  of  all 
our  acts  of  grateful  service  to  God.     He  who  gives  inspires 


I&eto,  jFreOerick  La  I&ue  ifting     159 

our  thanks,  He  whom  we  adore  and  praise  inspires  our  adora- 
tion and  praise;  and  every  one  of  all  our  acts  of  service  is 
but  an  appropriation  of  the  divine  strength  that  suffices  to  do 
that  service,  and  a  new  reason  for  gratitude. 

Petition  is  often  described  as  honoring  God;  the  cry 
"Hosannah  to  our  Saviour,"  the  petition  to  save,  was  the 
greatest  honor  He  ever  received  in  His  earthly  life. 

The  true  receiving  implies  a  sense  of  dependence,  a 
child-like  relation  which  we  human  beings  know  is  most 
grateful  to  us  in  those  whom  we  love  and  do  for,  and  so  we 
may  well  think  it  is  to  be  grateful  to  Him  in  whom  all  human 
affections  attain  their  perfection,  and  the  mere  relation  of 
giving  and  receiving  implies  a  communion  that  God  permits 
us  to  say  is  precious  to  Him. 

The  occupation  to  the  full  of  our  blessed  lot  implies  the 
energetic  exercise  of  all  our  blessed  lot — the  translating  of 
all  God's  graces  given  into  acts,  for  we  never  love  fully  till 
we  act  out  our  love;  and  so  with  all  other  gifts;  and  so  we 
become  by  the  full  reception  beneficient  communicators  of 
God's  grace. 

Verse  1  4.  "My  vows  to  Jehovah  will  I  pay — in  the 
presence  of  all  His  people." 

But  though  we  can  express  our  gratitude  only  by  re- 
ceiving God's  gifts  and  seeking  more,  still  in  the  manner  of 
our  reception  and  application  we  may  further  God's  designs 
and  help  to  carry  out  His  wishes.  We  can  publicly  acknow- 
ledge God's  goodness,  and  thus  spread  His  fame,  and  make 
Him  thus  a  blessing  to  others.  This  reception  shall  be  a  re- 
ception in  the  sight  of  all.  The  "vows"  are  the  vows  of 
requital.  This  requital  shall  be  made  so  that  all  shall  know 
to  whom  he  owes  everything.  And  so,  through  him,  God's 
way  shall  be  know  upon  earth. 

There  is  in  the  words,  "in  the  presence,"  etc.,  plain 
indication  of  the  princely  and  representative  character  of  the 
psalmist.  The  recognition  of  God's  mercy  was  to  be  splen- 
did and  stately,  and  yet  to  destroy  any  appearance  of  self- 


160  ©electeD  psalms  anU  egonograp&g 

importance.  This  that  he  was  to  do  for  a  benefactor  is 
intended  as  a  privilege. 

Verse  15.  "Precious  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah  (is)  the 
death  of  His  gracious  ones  (or  saints)." 

Here  would  seem  to  be  an  end;  public  thanksgiving 
crowns  the  reception  of  God's  favors,  and  requites  as  far 
as  creature  can  requite,  the  Creator's  munificence;  but  the 
cadence  of  this  lofty-lowly  strain  is  not  yet  reached.  The 
recollection  of  his  past  danger  comes  sobbing  in  again,  but 
so  softened  that  it  takes  the  form  of  a  comforting  assurance 
derived  from  the  experience.  The  recalling  of  the  past  peril 
only  heightens  the  sense  of  security.  Now  know  I  that  it 
is  a  great  matter  to  God  when  one  of  his  servants  dies.  When 
the  snares  of  death  took  him  and  he  was  in  his  agony.  God 
seemed  far  away.  The  world  and  all  its  powers  seemed 
near  and  mighty.  Did  God  care?  Now  he  knows  that 
God  was  all  the  time  watching,  guarding,  and  had  salva- 
tion ready  to  reveal  it  at  the  proper  time.  This  is  true  for 
all  time. 

Verse  1 6.  "Ah,  now  Jehovah — for  I  (am)  Thy 
servant,  the  son  of  Thy  handmaid;  Thou  hast  loosed  my 
bonds." 

But  he  cannot  cling  to  this  comfort  without  clinging 
directly  upon  God  and  pleading  that  he  may  take  this 
comfort. 

Ah,  now,  Lord,  surely  I  may  say  this,  for  I  am  a 
member  of  Thy  family,  a  slave  born  in  Thy  house  and 
therefore  having  the  strongest  claim  upon  Thee.  This  very 
deliverance  proves  that  I  may  make  this  claim. 

The  Hebrew  word  translated  "bonds"  is  the  same  one 
used  in  describing  the  hold  of  the  foreign  kings  upon  the  cap- 
tive people  of  Israel ;  it  is  a  different  word  from  that  translated 
"bonds,"  or  snares,  in  the  third  verse.  Thus,  though  the 
reference  is  in  the  first  instance  to  his  recent  trouble,  the  poet 
may  by  a  sudden  turn  intend  to  give  the  psalm  a  national 
import.      And  certainly,  although  the  details  of  the  psalm 


Eetn  jfreDetick  JLa  Hue  I&ing     161 

forbid  the  hypothesis  of  Hengstenberg  that  in  it  the  church 
is  the  speaker,  still  the  experiences  she  had  been  through  at 
Babylon  were  such  that  it  suited  her  case,  for  she  was  nigh 
to  destruction  and  wondrously  delivered.  Perhaps  the  enig- 
matic juxtaposition  of  his  claim  to  be  a  bond  servant,  and  the 
assertion  that  his  bonds  are  loosed  is  meant  to  indicate  that 
something  was  intended  more  than  met  the  ear.  I  am  Thy 
servant,  he  would  say,  but  no  longer  the  servant  of  men. 
How  David-like  is  this.  In  the  midst  of  princes  who  were 
ruling  as  earthly  gods,  he  proclaims  his  subordination  and 
servantship  to  a  higher  ruler. 

Verse  1  7.  "To  Thee  will  I  sacrifice  a  sacrifice  of 
thanks,  and  on  the  name  of  Jehovah  will  I  call." 

His  devotion  to  that  higher  ruler  is  shown  in  his  giving 
of  thanks.  It  is  to  be  in  the  use  of  the  worship  that  he  has 
ordained,  and  by  it  he  proclaims  his  adherence  to  that  wor- 
ship from  which  so  many  princes  had  fallen  away.  That 
worship  which  now,  in  the  feeble  renewal  of  the  nation  after 
the  Captivity,  was  so  little  and  despised  amid  the  mighty  and 
splendid  systems  of  idolatry  around.  He  called  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord  at  first  (verse  4th)  because  his  faith  was 
weak  and  he  could  not  go  beyond  God's  previous  manifesta- 
tion of  Himself,  and  now  as  his  application  to  God  is  for  the 
purpose  of  requital  and  giving  of  thanks,  respect  must  be 
had  to  his  recent  manifestation  of  himself  as  a  deliverer  as 
far  as  it  is  a  public  event.  For  it  may  be  said  also  that  to 
call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  is  more  proper  for  public  wor- 
ship, i.  e.  upon  God  as  He  is  known  to  all  the  congregation 
rather  than  as  He  is  known  to  one,  or  conceived  by  one 
through  the  bodying  forth  of  creative  faith.  Just  as  familiar 
pet  names  of  friends  are  improper  in  the  presence  of  strangers, 
so  too  great  familiarity  with  God  is  improper  in  public.  "The 
secrets  of  Divine  Love  are  to  be  kept,"  says  Madam  Guyon. 
A  minister  in  conducting  the  public  worship  of  the  congrega- 
tion should  not  refer  in  his  thanksgiving  (e.  g.) — to  his  own 
private  experiences  of  God's  goodness,  but  to  the  public  ex- 


162  Selected  psalms  anD  aionograpj)$ 

periences  of  the  beneficence  of  God,  well  known  to  the 
assembly,  as  a  common  experience  of  God's  character  and 
works. 

Verse  18.  "My  vows  to  Jehovah  will  I  pay  in  the 
presence  (I  entreat)  of  all  His  people." 

This  verse,  though  identical  with  the  1 4th,  is  uttered 
with  a  somewhat  different  sentiment.  There  it  is  for  the 
purpose  of  thanksgiving  and  requital  that  he  desires  the  public 
performance  of  his  vows;  here  it  is  the  expression  of  a  home- 
like confidence  that  grows  to  its  climax  at  the  end  of  the 
psalm.  He  is  freed  from  his  fears,  he  feels  the  everlasting 
arms  around  him  (verse  1 5th)  ;  he  is  a  member,  however 
humble,  of  God's  immediate  family  and  can  plead  a  righteous 
claim  on  that  account  (God's  deliverance  but  acknowledges 
that  claim)  ;  and  now  the  gates  of  the  home  of  homes — the 
Sanctuary — unclose  (verses  17  and  18),  the  precious  privi- 
leges of  a  worshipping  believer  are  to  be  his,  and  yet  it  is  all 
in  faith,  not  self-confidence,  for  as  he  crosses  the  threshold 
he  says,  "I  entreat,"  till  at  last  the  Lowly  One. 

"Rescued  from  death  by  force,  though  pale  and  faint," 
finds  himself — 

Verse  1 9.  "In  the  courts  of  the  house  of  Jehovah,  in 
the  midst  of  thee,  Jerusalem.     Hallelujah." 

Standing  royally  in  the  "courts  of  the  house  of  Je- 
hovah," whose  very  walls  are  promises;  and  as  the  central 
figure  in  the  great  metropolis  of  God,  whose  are  the  sure 
covenants — his  very  privileges  and  blessings  confirming  and 
perpetuating  themselves,  and  surrounded  by  which,  his  loftiest 
and  at  once  lowliest  utterance  bursts  forth, — "Praise  ye  the 
Lord." 


Eetn  jFreDeticfe  La  Eue  mm     163 


$galm  120. 


The  Psalmist  delivered  from  trouble  repeats  his  petition 
to  the  Lord. 

This  psalm  is  a  lyrical  narration,  in  which  the  psalmist 
repeats  his  past  utterances  with  the  facts  that  occasioned 
them.  This  form  is  often  used  in  the  Psalter,  and  gives  often 
a  highly  dramatic  effect  to  the  composition.  This  is  the  first 
of  the  songs  of  ascents  and  the  title  is  part  of  the  form.  This 
psalm  may  refer  to  the  Church  of  God,  but  if  so,  then  the 
form  under  which  the  Church  of  God  appears,  is  that  of  a 
pilgrim  approaching  Jerusalem — the  final  goal  and  resting 
place,  of  all  his  wanderings.  He  has  come  up  out  of  great 
tribulation  and  as  he  passes  along,  at  the  halting  by  night  or 
at  the  start  in  the  morning,  in  the  weariness  of  the  way  or 
even  in  sight  of  the  Holy  City  itself,  the  recollection  of  the 
dreadful  past  is  yet  vivid  in  his  soul,  shadowing  it,  and  yet 
making  deeper  its  sense  of  deliverance.  The  ground  swell 
of  terror  yet  heaves.  The  cause  of  the  weeping  is  gone  and 
yet,  there  is  the  sob  yet  that  tells  of  the  past  agony.  It  is  the 
picture  of  a  man  who  with  great  earthly  loss,  without  the 
right  hand  and  without  the  right  eye,  enters  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

Verse  1 .  "A  song  of  ascents.  To  Jehovah,  in  my 
distress,  I  carled,  and  He  answered  me." 

And  now  the  pilgrim  speaks.  He  tells  us  that  he 
has  been  in  distress,  has  called  on  God,  and  has  been  an- 
swered— here  he  is,  his  feet  on  the  way  near  the  Blessed 
Place.  Then  he  repeats  his  "call"  through  which  we  learn 
the  character  of  his  distress.  Examining  the  "call"  we  have 
the  past  succession  of  feelings  on  the  part  of  the  psalmist. 

First,  Agonizing  prayer  for  deliverance,  (verse  2). 
Second,  Faith  strengthened  enough  to  denounce,  with  rage, 
punishment  upon  his  calumniators  (verses  3  and  4).  Third, 


164  Selected  psalms  ana  ^onograp&s 

then  utter  weariness,  a  weariness  that  is,  as  all  our  weariness 
may  be,  a  sagging  down  upon  the  Lord  in  faith  (verses  5,  6 
and  7). 

Verse  2.  "Oh,  Jehovah,  free  my  soul  from  lips  of 
falsehood,  from  tongue  of  fraud." 

This  psalm  has  doubtless  an  universal  application.  It 
suits  the  individual  Christian;  it  fits  his  great  Master,  and 
the  Churches  of  riie  Old  and  the  New  Covenant;  but  the 
occasion  of  its  composition  was,  as  commentators  think,  prob- 
ably the  trying  position  of  the  restored  Jews  under  "the 
spiteful  misrepresentation,  by  which  the  Samaritans  retarded 
the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  as  recorded  in  the  fourth  chap- 
ter of  Ezra,"  Alexander  says.  Misrepresentation  is  exceed- 
ingly powerful  at  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  movements  or 
the  founding  of  institutions.  Old  established  things  are  let 
alone,  but  here  was  a  change.  The  Jews  had  been  captive 
for  more  than  two  whole  generations,  during  this  period  the 
Holy  City  had  been  desolate  and  the  Temple  in  ruins.  The 
Restoration,  not  yet  an  accomplished  fact,  was,  as  it  were, 
on  trial  before  the  world.  Now  was  slander's  opportunity, 
and  well  did  enemies  know  how  to  take  advantage  of  it.  In 
this  day  we  have  the  same  history  enacted  again.  The 
Press,  the  great  disseminator  of  Truth,  is  used  as  the  dis- 
seminator also  of  untruth.  And  again  the  enemies  of  the 
Light  say,  "by  our  lips,  we  shall  prevail."  The  most  effect- 
ive way  in  which  good  men  and  good  measures  are  slan- 
dered, is  to  take  hold  of  real  sins  and  exaggerate  them  and 
evil  tendencies  that  are  inseparable  from  every  good  move- 
ment and  make  out  that  they  are  its  essence.  Calumny,  es- 
pecially in  this  free  land,  retards  progress  more  than  any- 
thing else.  Here  again  it  is  seen  as  of  old  that  old  doctrines 
and  old  institutions  are  let  alone,  and  the  cloud  of  calumny 
gathers  around  the  head  of  him  who  dares  take  a  step  in 
advance.  And  yet  it  is  only  by  constant  steps  in  advance  of 
the  old  that  the  old  is  preserved;  indeed  it  is  by  the  trans- 
formation of  the  old,  that  the  old  remains. 


Ifteto*  jFreDerick  La  Eue  ifting     165 

Verse  3.  "What  will  He  give  to  thee,  and  what  will 
He  add  to  thee,  thou  tongue  of  fraud." 

Literally,  what  will  He  give  to  thee,  and  what  will  He 
add  to  thee.  Alexander  thinks  that  there  is  here,  a  reference 
to  the  form  of  imprecation,  "God  do  so  to  me  and  so  add." 
If  this  is  the  case  there  seems  to  be  an  intimation  that  they 
have  made  themselves  amenable  to  something  like  the  guilti- 
ness of  a  broken  oath.  They  have  taken  God's  name  in 
vain,  that  is  they  have  professed  to  do  in  God's  name  deeds 
of  malice  and  cruelty.  In  Isaiah  36: 7  and  10,  and  Jere- 
miah 50:7  and  1  1 ,  we  see  the  spirit  of  the  enemies  of 
Israel.  They  hated  her  because  they  hated  God  and  yet 
they  professed  to  be  God's  servants  in  executing  punishment 
upon  her.  The  Lord  says  to  them  that  when  He  was  angry 
with  Israel,  they  tried  to  aggravate  his  anger  and  increase 
the  severity  of  the  punishment.  They  say  profanely  by  their 
act  as  others  say  profanely  in  words,  "By  God  I  will  do 
it,"  and  that  strength  of  God  which  they  profess  to  take  hold 
of  to  enable  them  to  do  his  will  upon  the  Jews,  takes  hold  of 
them  for  their  destruction.  The  Lord  does  so  to  them  and 
more  also.  This  rhetorical  interrogative  may  then  be  inter- 
preted thus,  "O!  what  dreadful  things  may  be  imprecated 
upon  thee  even." 

Verse  4.  "Arrows  of  a  warrior  sharpened,  (together) 
with  coals  of  juniper." 

The  tongue  "of  fraud"  partially  personified  in  verse  2 
is  now  addressed  and  this  enables  the  writer  to  introduce 
(verse  4)  a  metaphorical  penalty  in  the  form  of  what  was 
likely  to  be  the  punishment  of  calumniators  in  those  times — 
piercing  the  tongue  with  an  arrow  and  burning  it  out  by 
the  roots.  That  there  is  any  direct  reference  to  war  in  the 
words  "sharp  arrows,"  is  unlikely  when  we  consider  how 
rude  an  interruption,  that  would  be,  to  the  figure,  the  tongue 
being  directly  addressed,  to  conceive  of  mighty  men  ranged 
in  order  of  battle  against  it,  would  be  ridiculous,  as  to  form. 
And  it  may  here  be  said  that  sacred  poetry  conforms  to 


166  Selected  psalms  anD  Qionograpljs 

the  strict  laws  of  taste  far  more,  than  most  persons  are  aware. 
The  artistic  excellence  of  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  has  yet  to 
be  done  justice  to.  When  we  come  to  the  second  branch 
of  the  description,  "coals,"  the  inapplicability  of  the  de- 
scription to  war  is  still  more  manifest.  War  against  the 
tongue  with  coals  is  inconceivable,  and  as  to  war  in  general, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  fire  was,  as  early  as  this,  used  as  an 
instrument  of  attack.  It  could  hardly  be  called  a  happy 
description  of  a  flaming  arrow  either.  An  arrow  bearing 
coals  being  ineffective  in  reality  is  ineffective  poetically  con- 
sidered. Where  also  would  be  the  use  of  the  sharpness. 
Besides,  as  is  plain  from  the  context,  these  calumniating  ene- 
mies of  Israel  are  described  as  nomandic  tribes,  who  do  not 
dwell  in  cities,  and  for  whom  fiery  arrows  would  have  few 
terrors.  If  we  take  the  words  as  describing  a  punishment 
dealt  out  to  the  tongue,  it  is  so  condign  and  congruous  to 
the  offence  that  one  can  hardly  resist  the  impression  that  such 
a  punishment  was  really  in  use,  but  it  would  be  enough  if  it 
was  merely  invented  by  the  Psalmist.  There  is  something 
artless  at  once  and  powerful  in  the  terms  which  convey  this 
description.  The  tongue  is  not  merely  to  be  pierced  and 
burned,  but  by  a  terribly  destructive  arrow  and  by  the  in- 
tensest  fire,  coal  of  broom,  the  portable  and  strong  fuel  of 
the  Bedaweens.  Of  course,  logically,  all  arrows  and  every 
kind  of  fire  would  be  the  same  to  the  culprit,  but  these  ex- 
pressions appeal  to  the  imagination  and  surround  the  punish- 
ment with  terrors,  that  would  be  felt  by  simple  minds  and 
even  by  minds  that  are  not  simple.  For  though  we  would 
not  feel  as  a  child  would,  the  terrors  of  the  sword  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar over  other  swords,  yet  the  sevenfold  heat  and 
the  vast  size  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  fiery  furnace  would  have 
terrors  for  us  over  other  furnaces.  There  is  a  rhetoric  of 
danger  and  death  and  he  who  would  not  dread  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's furnace  more  because  of  its  sevenfold  heat  and 
size  might  shudder  at  falling  into  the  sun.  There  is  something 
then  in  this  artless  form  that  appeals  universally  to  the  imag- 


Eetn  jfreoerick  La  i&ue  Htfng     167 

ination  of  men.  We  may  expect  that  the  rhetoric  of  this 
psalm  will  be  imitated  at  the  last  day.  A  familiar  death 
has  lost  some  of  its  terrors,  but  at  the  end  of  all  things,  the 
power  of  God  will  be  exerted,  not  only  to  bring  down  the 
substance  of  punishment  upon  the  sinner,  but  also  to  enhance 
the  terror  and  to  display  the  wrath  in  the  most  impressive 
way. 

Verse  5.  "Alas  for  me,  that  I  sojourn  (with)  Me- 
shech  (and)  dwell  near  the  tents  of  Kedar." 

Meshech — barbarous  nations  on  the  North,  Kedar — 
barbarous  nations  on  the  South,  between  which  Israel  was 
placed.  The  mention  of  arrows  and  coals  makes  an  easy 
transition  to  the  barbarians  among  whom  the  bow  was  the 
great  weapon  and  especially  brings  up  the  nomadic  tribes  of 
the  South,  who  used  coals  of  broom.  Edom  was  perhaps 
the  most  violent  enemy  that  Israel  had.  They  had  doubt- 
less a  great  deal  to  do  in  bringing  down  the  wrath  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar upon  the  Jews,  playing  the  part  of  spies  and 
triumphing  over  them  at  the  dire  event  (Ps.  137:7)  (Oba- 
diah  12:  13,  14).  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  any 
special  reference  was  made  to  the  northern  barbarians.  Alex- 
ander says,  "As  these  races,  dwelling  far  off,  in  the  north 
and  south,  were  never  in  immediate  or  continued  contact 
with  the  Israelites.  These  races  are  probably  named  as 
types  and  representatives  of  warlike  barbarism.  Just  as  the 
names — Goths,  Vandals,  Huns,  Turks,  Tartars,  Cossacks 
have  at  different  times  been  used  preverbially  in  English  to 
describe  those  supposed  to  exhibit  the  same  character,  how- 
ever unconnected  or  remote  in  genealogy  and  local  habita- 
tion." These  names  may,  however,  be  more  than  abstrac- 
tions. The  northern  tribes  may  have  troubled  the  Jews  as 
well  as  the  southern.  Invassion,  certainly,  came  for  the  most 
part,  from  the  north  and  we  may  well  suppose  that  the  As- 
syrian hordes  were  preceded  and  assisted  by  the  native  tribes. 
It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  prophecy  of  Ezekiel  (38:2) 
the  northern  tribes  are  set  forth  as,  in  the  future,  the  great 


168  ^electeD  psalms  and  ^onograpijg 

persecutors  of  a  restored  Israel,  just  as  the  southern  tribes  are 
in  the  history,  as  the  past  persecutors  of  God's  people.  So 
that  these  two  words,  "Kedar"  and  "Meshech,"  may  sha- 
dow forth  the  whole  past  and  future  martyr  history  of  the 
people  of  God. 

Verse  6.  "My  soul  has  dwelt  too  long  for  her  with 
(one)   hating  peace." 

The  words  "for  her"  make  a  further  and  stronger  ex- 
pression of  weariness  begun  in  the  word  "also"  in  the  5th 
verse.  This  is  made  still  stronger  by  the  word  of  self-con- 
sciousness, "my  soul."  It  indicates  that  hate,  terror  or  any 
other  feeling  that  would  naturally  be  aroused  towards  the 
author  of  suffering,  is,  by  suffering,  extinguished,  and  the 
mind  occupied  with  that  which  suffers — "my  soul,"  "for 
her"  as  if  he  said,  I  can  stand  it  no  longer.  There  is  in  this, 
utter  giving  up,  an  indication,  that  hope  of  release  is  present. 
In  ordinary  trials  the  man  justifies  God  and  says,  "There  is 
a  needs  be  for  this."  He  sees  how  it  is  to  make  him  better 
wiser  or  stronger.  He  also  trusts  farther  than  he  sees.  He 
feels  also  strongly  to  wrestle  and  his  consciousness  of  strength 
is  the  basis  of  the  feeling  that  he  is  getting  or  will  in  the 
end  get  good  from  his  trouble.  But  there  are  times  when 
all  this  is  changed.  The  man  feels  no  strength  to  resist,  no 
healthful  recuperative  power,  he  is  concious  that  his  trials  are 
not  developing  him,  but  preventing  development,  degrading 
and  not  elevating  him.  A  persuasion  steals  into  his  mind 
that  the  time  has  come  for  a  change;  and  it  probably  has 
come.  There  is  a  temptation  that  is  "overmuch"  and  God 
will  not  suffer  that  man's  extremity  is  God's  opportunity.  By 
faith,  he  knows  that  he  does  not  have  his  home  with  Meshech 
but  only  does  "sojourn"  (verse  5)  there.  So  he  lets  go  in 
order  to  fall  on  God.  He  sags  down  in  utter  weariness 
upon  the  Almighty. 

Verse  7.  "I  am  peace  and  when  I  speak,  they  (go) 
to  war." 


I&eto*  jFreDerick  La  ftue  Htfng     169 

"I  am  peace,"  not  I  am  for  peace.  They  make  every 
word  an  occasion  for  strife.  These  words  evidently  show 
that  the  national  occasion  does  not  exhaust  the  significance 
of  the  psalm.  Indeed  the  psalm  would  little  profit  the 
church  of  God  if  it  might  not  be  used  for  the  cheer  of 
any  Christian,  who  is  in  the  midst  of  slanderous  enemies.  He 
may  learn  to  call  on  the  Lord,  to  expect  from  God's  Jus- 
tice the  terrible  overthrow  of  his  enemies,  and  if  the  trial 
is  too  hard  for  him  may  draw  comfort  from  the  extremity 
of  the  trouble,  and  be  brought  nearer  to  the  Lord  by  his 
very  succumbing  to  his  anguish  and  weakness. 


170  Selected  lp0aims  ana  a§onograp&0 

$saim  119. 

AUTHORSHIP. 

The  author  of  this  psalm  is  evidently  a  young  man  (w.  9, 
99,  100),  in  the  midst  of  peril  from  enemies  (vv.  61,  84, 
95,109,110,  121,134,150,  154,  157),  and  of  prince- 
ly dignity.  This  last  is  shown,  first,  by  the  character  of  his 
enemies.  He  is  exposed  to  the  machinations  of  a  number 
of  princes;  they  are  called  by  that  name  in  w.  23  and  161, 
and  appear  under  the  character  of  "proud"  men  in  w.  51, 
69,  70,  78,  85,  122.  The  troubles  which  these  enemies 
bring  upon  him  are  not  those  that  great  men  bring  upon 
their  inferiors  but  such  as  equals  inflict  upon  equals.  The 
princes  "sit"  and  "talk"  against  him,  123;  in  161  they 
are  said  to  "persecute"  him;  in  both  which  expressions  there 
is  some  indication  of  power  as  against  his  enemies  on  the  part 
of  the  sufferer.  So  also  the  "proud"  are  said  (v.  5 1  )  to 
deride  (w.  69  and  78),  to  traduce  and  (v.  85)  lay  traps 
for  him.  These  expressions  are  not  suited  to  a  little  one  of 
earth  in  the  hands  of  powerful  oppressors  but  rather  applic- 
able to  the  case  of  one  against  whom  his  enemies  have  to 
set  their  wits  and  exert  their  force  as  against  a  formidable  foe. 
The  dignity  of  the  sufferer's  person  is  also  implied  in  the 
terms  (v.  87)  describing  the  evils  wrought  upon  him  by 
his  enemies.  The  expressions  are  such  as  would  be  proper 
in  the  case  of  the  attempted  destruction  of  a  nation  and  find 
their  justification  only  in  the  fact  that  the  oppressed  one  is 
in  some  sense  the  representative  of  a  nation — the  Holy 
Nation.  There  is  another  consideration  from  which  the 
princely  dignity  of  the  psalmist  appears — he  is  the  subject 
of  a  special  promise  (vv.  25,  41,  49,  50,  81,  82);  and 
this  appears  not  only  where  a  promise  is  undeniably  and 
specifically  mentioned  but  in  all  those  places  where  the 
psalmist    speaks    of    himself    as    looking    to    the    Judgments 


Eetn  jFreOerick  La  Hue  mm     17X 

of  God  for  the  realization  of  his  desires.  "Judgments" 
is  a  mighty  word,  and  implies  something  great  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  punishment  and  the  deliverance;  and  when  the 
psalmist  says  "for  in  Thy  Judgments  I  hope"  (v.  43),  it  is 
evidently  the  expectation  of  one  who  regards  himself  as 
one  of  more  than  ordinary  importance.  These  delivering 
"mercies  and  salvation  according  to  Thy  word"  (v.  41) 
form  the  burden  of  a  large  part  of  the  psalm  and  in  v.  46. 

Second,  he  engages  that,  if  God  will  fulfil  His  promise, 
he  will  not  be  ashamed  to  bear  testimony  to  Him  "before 
kings."  There  are  three  ways  in  which  he  might  bear  tes- 
timony before  kings,  as  a  martyr,  as  an  ambassador,  and  as 
a  king  before  his  fellow  kings.  In  the  case  of  either  of  the 
first  two  the  declaration  could  only  reach  the  lame  and  im- 
potent conclusion  "if  I  ever  should  be  a  martyr  or  an  am- 
bassador I  will  then  bear  witness  to  The  before  kings";  this 
is  not  to  be  thought  of  and  there  remains  therefore  this  as  the 
declaration  of  the  verse  since  the  granting  of  his  desires  would 
make  him  a  king,  he  will  then  before  his  heathen  fellow 
kings,  acknowledge  the  Lord,  his  Heavenly  King.  The  im- 
pression of  his  princely  character  is  strenghtened  further  by: 
third,  verses  74  and  79  where  "the  fearers  of  Jehovah," 
who  may  be  understood  to  mean  the  theocratic  party  in 
Israel,  are  represented  as  ready  to  rejoice  at  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promise  to  himself  and  are  by  him,  (verse  79)  expected 
to  return  to  his  leadership  from  which  they  appear  to  have 
fallen  away  through  discouragement,  perhaps  induced  by 
God's  trying  dealings  towards  him. 

Fourth,  it  is  strikingly  characteristic  of  an  expectant 
ruler — a  crown  prince — to  take  great  interest  in  public  af- 
fairs, and  as  a  general  rule  to  be  very  observant  of  the  faults 
and  follies  of  public  administration.  This  critical  attitude 
often  impels  to  great  zeal  for  reform  and  right  during  the 
time  of  expectancy  if  no  longer.  It  has  been  often  remarked 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  England  is  generally  in  the  op- 
position.    Such  a  public  spirit  and  sense  of  responsibility  is 


172  Selected  Psalms  and  ^onogtapfis 

to  be  seen  in  the  psalmist's  zeal  for  the  Law  and  his  ex- 
citement against  law  breakers  (verses  53,  126,  136,  139, 
158.) 

This  princely  person  is   unsettled — a   waiter  and   so 
forever  (verses  54  and  123),  is  despised  and  spoken  against 
(verses   22,    42,    51,    141),    constantly    tempted    (verses, 
29,36,37,110,115),     is    constantly    apprehending    dis- 
grace  (verse  39),  is  lonely  and  needs  counsel   (verses   19 
and  24)  and  (verse  66),  craves  specifically  wisdom.   There 
is  one  young  prince  in  whom  all  these  characteristic  traits 
agree.     Solomon,  son  of  King  David,  ascended  the  throne 
in  his  early  youth,  but  there  was  an  earlier  youth  of  which 
we  read  nothing  in  the  Scripture,  but  whose  character  we 
can  well  divine  from  its  supreme  and  final  moment  of  trial  in 
the  revolt  of  Adonijah.     Those  early  years  must  have  been 
crowded  with  many  anxieties  and  perils  and  temptations  to 
the  young  prince,  wise  beyond  his  years  and  born  to  an  in- 
heritance, which  must  have  made  him  the  object  of  jealous 
hatred  on  the  part  of  his  brothers.     At  his  birth  he  was  by 
God  given  the  name  of  Iedidiah,  or  "beloved  of  God."    He 
was  by  a  communication  of  God  to  David  especially  ap- 
pointed his  successor  and  given  the  charge  of  building  the 
temple.     This,  of  course,  would  be  known  to  all,  and  we 
can  easily  imagine  the  feelings  of  the  excluded  brothers.    We 
can  see  from  what  is  told  in  the  history  that  they  had  no 
intention  of  tamely  submitting  to  the  exclusion;  and  from 
what  we  know  of  Absalom,  Adonijah  and  Amnon  it  is  plain 
that  there  was  no  lack  of  ability  or  audacity  on  the  part  of 
David's  other  sons.     There  would  not  be  wanting  pruden- 
tial reasons,  which  indicated  one  older  than  Solomon  as  the 
proper  person   for   the  succession   in  such   troublous   times. 
The  intrigues  that  are  so  rife  in  Oriental  courts  would  be 
intensified  in  this  case  by  the  very  promise  that  secured  the 
throne  of  Solomon.     It  would  be  the  case  of  Joseph  and  his 
brethern  over  again,  save  that  here  was  no  vague  and  shad- 
owy pre-eminence  promised,   but  a   glorious   throne.      We 


Eetn  JFreDerick  La  Eue  fting     173 

see  how  on  the  occasion  of  Adonijah's  attempt,  that  all  the 
King's  sons  made  common  cause  against  Solomon,  and  we 
have  every  reason  to  think  that,  however  jealous  they  may 
have  been  among  themselves,  Solomon  would  be  the  common 
enemy.  There  was,  doubtless,  direct  peril  of  his  life,  greater 
peril  from  false  accusations,  greater  still  from  the  temptations 
that  had  for  their  object  the  seizure  of  the  power  that  was 
falling  from  the  hands  of  the  aged  monarch.  Solomon,  early 
matured  and  emphatically  a  man  of  affairs,  must  have  been 
at  times  miserably  chafed  and  impatient,  while  watching 
these  plots  and  hard  must  it  have  been  to  keep  his  hands  away 
and  persevere  in  waiting  and  trust.  Whether  Solomon  wrote 
this  psalm  or  not,  it  seems  to  record  just  such  experiences  as 
those  of  Solomon,  and,  if  read  as  his,  will  be  full  of  lyric 
power.  The  style  of  the  psalm  is  in  marked  contrast  to  those 
of  David,  the  tone  is  not  warm  and  glowing;  there  is  no 
expression  of  love  for  God  or  his  people,  no  enthusiasm,  at 
most  quiet,  contemplative  gratitude.  The  psalmist's  view 
seems  bounded  by  his  own  affairs,  his  own  troubles  and 
joys.  The  style  is  aphoristic,  and  the  constantly  expressed 
desire  for  the  knowledge  of  God's  precepts  indicates  a  subtle 
metaphysical  and  subjective  habit  of  mind.  It  needs  hardly 
be  said  that  all  this  is  peculiarly  suited  to  Solomon.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that  though  the  psalm  may  record  the  experiences 
of  his  youth,  it  need  not  have  been  written  in  his  youth,  or 
at  least  may  not  have  been  finished  then.  Or  it  may  have 
been  written  by  another,  but  as  if  by  Solomon  in  his  youth. 


174  Selected  psalms  ant>  s@onograpf)0 


$*alm  119. 


ALEPH. 

Verse  I .  "Happy  the  perfect  of  way,  those  walk- 
ing in  the  law  of  Jehovah." 

"The  way"  is  the  way  of  the  "Law" — the  most  gen- 
eral expression  for  the  whole  Mosaic  Institutions.  Perfection 
in  those  in  its  fullest  extent  would  include  all  moral  per- 
fection; but  here  the  meaning  is  pre-eminently  and  especially 
perfection  in  the  observance  of  the  Mosaic  cult — all  those 
rites  and  ordinances  which  marked  a  true  Jew. 

Verse  2.  "Happy  the  keepers  of  His  testimonies 
(who)   with  a  whole  heart  seek  Him." 

The  word  "testimonies"  refers  especially  to  the  Moral 
Law — the  ten  commandments  and  all  the  law  that  grows 
out  of  them.  Here  the  blessing  is  narrowed.  A  person 
may  be  a  strict  Jew,  and  may  even  keep  the  ten  command- 
ments in  their  narrow  logically  interpreted  sense,  but  it  is 
quite  another  thing  to  be  earnestly  seeking  God  to  know 
what  He  commands  or  prohibits.  Great  fear  is  implied  in 
this.  But  yet  after  all  something  is  still  to  be  desired.  Ba- 
laam had  great  fear  of  God,  and  earnestly  sought  Him  to 
know  His  will;  but  for  all  that  he  had  an  evil  will  of  his 
own;  and  in  order  to  make  him  obey  it  was  necessary  that 
God  should  speak  very  plainly  and  exactly  to  him.  Ba- 
laam's conscience,  or  love  to  God  or  man,  was  not  to  be 
appealed  to,  for  there  was  in  him  little  of  the  sort.  So,  like 
Balaam,  a  man  may  be  willing  to  do  all  that  God  commands 
with  the  utmost  exactitude  when  those  commands  are  exactly 
expressed — when  chapter  and  verse  can  be  found  for  it; 
or  when  it  can  be  logically  inferred  from  any  distinct  com- 
mand, while  at  the  same  time  he  loaths  it.  The  Pharisees, 
who  logically  developed  the  law  to  the  minutest  extent,  tithing 


Eefch  jFreDerick  JLa  IRue  I&ing     t75 

mint,  anise  and  cummin,  neglected  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law.  The  legal  spirit  is  not  necessarily  a  holy  spirit,  the 
exactness  with  which  it  obeys  is  the  measure  of  the  exactness 
with  which  it  narrows  the  scope  of  the  law.  Therefore  it 
is  to  complete  the  picture  of  the  Blessed  One  that  the  Psalm- 
ist goes  on  to  say. 

Verse  3.  "(Who)  also  do  not  practice  wrong,  (but) 
in  His  ways  walk." 

"They  also  do  no  iniquity."  They  are  not  only  per- 
fect in  the  practice  of  the  ordinances,  not  only  do  they  do 
what  God  has  distinctly  commanded  in  order  to  holiness,  but 
they  interpret  the  law  with  the  heart.  They  do  not  rest 
in  the  skeleton  of  duty,  which  the  law  lays  down,  but  fill 
it  out,  not  according  to  the  law  of  logic,  but  the  law  of 
obedient  love.  They  are  therefore  no  whited  sepulchres — 
they  do  no  iniquity.  They  pattern  themselves  not  merely 
upon  God's  institutions,  or  precepts,  but  upon  His  "ways" — 
they  try  to  act  as  He  does.  This  last  is  not  merely  some- 
thing additional,  but  is  the  very  means  by  which  they  avoid 
doing  evil.  The  law  as  God's  example  lifts  itself  above  the 
narrowness  of  precept  and  institution  and  adjusts  itself  to 
all  the  life  of  a  living  man. 

Verse  4.  "Thou  hast  commanded  Thy  precepts  to  be 
kept  strictly." 

This  calls  attention  to  the  vast  import  and  scope  of 
the  precepts  of  God.  They  may  be  in  form,  narrow,  but 
they  must  be  kept  broadly,  not  according  to  the  letter,  but 
largely  according  to  that  spirit  that  seeks  for  His  precepts 
and  prizes  His  commands,  and  esteems  itself  richer  and 
freer,  the  richer  and  more  searching  it  makes  the  meaning  of 
the  law. 

Verse  5.  "Oh,  that  my  ways  were  settled,  to  observe 
Thy  statutes." 

The  form  of  the  description  is  not  kept  up,  but  the 
thought  progresses.  The  aspiration  is  for  something  more 
than  merely  to  look  to  cult,  commandments  or  even  the  ways 


176  ^electeD  P0alm$  anD  ®ottograpi)0 

of  God,  for  the  single  purpose  of  moral  improvement,  as  one 
department  of  life  work;  it  is  that  the  whole  business  of  our 
lives  should  be  this  very  thing.  All  our  ways,  like  the  many 
branches  of  a  river,  should  pour  into  this  one  channel. 

Verse  6.  "Then  shall  I  not  be  shamed,  in  my  looking 
unto  all  Thy  Commandments." 

Here  is  an  argument  for  this  course  and  also  its  justifi- 
cation. They  will  be  kept  from  shame,  who  look  to  God's 
statutes.  And  since  God  in  His  commandments  implies  that 
what  He  commands  is  best  for  His  people,  we  may  know 
that  sooner  or  later  prosperity  is  the  result.  Look  at  the 
law  as  a  model  and  standard  of  action,  and  you  will  not 
have  cause  to  blush  for  yourself.  Look  to  the  law  as  a  re- 
liance, a  portion  and  inheritance,  and  you  will  see  good, 
you  will  not  be  ashamed  of  your  hope.  This  justifies,  the 
aspiration  of  the  preceding  verse,  and  besides  it  may  be  said, 
though  all  are  dedicated  to  God's  service,  still  the  work  of 
the  world  and  the  use  of  means  will  not  be  neglected.  The 
true  pursuit  of  holiness  permits  and  involves  all  proper 
activity. 

Verse  7.  "I  will  thank  Thee  with  rectitude  of  heart, 
in  my  learning  the  judgments  of  Thy  righteousness." 

We  may,  indeed,  without  this  devotion  to  God's  ser- 
vice, have  earthly  prosperity  and  may  thank  the  Lord.  But 
our  thanks  will  be  without  rectitude,  will  be  sinful  thanks, 
if  we  have  not  heeded  in  our  previous  course,  and  with  a 
good  conscience  attained  our  worldly  success.  This  verse 
ought  not  to  be  limited  to  the  connection.  True,  thankful- 
ness will  be  induced  without  added  prosperity  if  we  only 
learn  what  are  the  judgments  of  God's  righteousness  with 
regard  to  ourselves.  Humility  involves  content.  The 
thanksgivings  of  the  humble  are  the  strongest  manifestation 
of  holiness  and  justify  and  honor  God  more  than  any  other 
praise.  It  may  be  applied  to  deliverances,  national  or  per- 
sonal. The  thanks  of  triumph  and  deliverance  must  not  be 
made  with  pride.     Delivering  judgments  upon  our  enemies, 


Rett*  jfteDetick  La  Eue  &ins     177 

while  they  should  draw  forth  our  thanksgiving,  ought  also 
to  make  us  tremble  to  the  marrow  of  our  bones,  for  they  are 
judgments  because  of  sin,  and  we  are  sinners.  So  also 
when  we  escape  calamity.  They,  upon  whom  the  tower  in 
Siloam  did  not  fall,  only  if  they  repented,  might  congratulate 
themselves. 

Verse  8.  "Thy  statutes  I  will  keep;  oh,  forsake  me 
not  utterly." 

We  have  in  this  verse  two  things  blended  which  have 
often  been  declared  by  the  spiritually  ignorant  to  be  incom- 
patible, fixed  resolve  and  dependence  upon  God.  There 
can  be  no  resolve,  which  is  at  the  same  time  intelligent  with- 
out dependence  upon  God;  and  there  can  be  no  true  depen- 
dence upon  God  without  fixed  resolve.  God  works  not 
on  us,  but  in  us,  to  will  and  do,  and  therefore  dependence 
upon  Him  is  the  highest  form  of  independence,  it  is  depen- 
dence upon  a  deeper  greater  self. 

BETH. 

Verse  9.  "By  what  (means)  can  a  youth  cleanse  his 
path,  so  as  to  keep  (it)  according  to  Thy  word?" 

It  is  essential,  in  interpreting  this  stanza,  to  keep  in 
mind  its  purely  lyric  character.  It  would  be  worth  very 
little  as  a  record  of  the  results  of  self-introspective  analysis — 
a  self  complacent  pleading  of  one's  own  meritorious  moods. 
Every  verse  must  be  taken  as  a  self-forgetting  outburst  of 
feeling.  The  verse  we  are  considering  is  not  to  be  taken 
as  a  mere  inquiry  for  the  sake  of  information,  but  an  excla- 
mation drawn  forth  by  an  intense  appreciation  of  the  ex- 
treme difficulty  of  a  young  man's  making  his  life  pure  by  the 
use  of  the  law.  This  exclamation  is  at  the  same  time  a 
searching  question  in  which  the  psalmist  graeps  after  that 
which  may  help  him  in  the  effort.  "O  how  can  I,  a  young 
man,  make  my  life  square  with  the  law  of  God?  I  look 
everywhere  for  help,  and  am  ready  to  lay  hold  of  anything 
that  may  serve."     The  mood  is  one  that  expresses, 


178  Selected  pgalms  anO  aponograp&s; 

First,  a  sense  of  the  strict  requirements  of  the  Law.  This 
connects  with  the  preceding  stanza. 

Second,  a  consciousness  of  the  peculiar  difficulty  under 
which  a  young  man  labors  owing  to  the  thoughtlessness  of 
youth,  its  strong  passions  and  surrounding  temptations.  This 
is  a  wise  youth  who  utters  this,  for  youth  generally  feels 
strong  to  do  right. 

Third,  a  strong  desire  to  make  holy  the  life  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law. 

Fourth,  an  humble  readiness  for  any  help  whatsoever, 
while 

Fifth,  there  is  at  the  same  time  a  resolute  summoning 
of  one's  powers. 

Verse  10.  "With  my  whole  heart  have  I  sought 
Thee;   let  me  not  err  from  Thy  commandments." 

Here  again,  care  must  be  taken  not  to  lose  the  naive 
lyric  character  of  this  utterance.  If  it  be  understood  "I  have 
as  a  past  act  sought  Thee,  and  therefore  as  a  reward  let 
me  not  err  from  Thy  commandments,"  it  becomes  completely 
prosaic.  But  the  past  shades  into  the  present,  and  implies 
the  future.  "I  have  sought"  marks  strong  resolve,  settled 
tendency  and  purpose.  "With  my  whole  heart"  indicates 
unfaltering,  unflagging,  unmixed  desire.  This  whole  desire 
to  seek  a  whole  God,  marks  the  highest  spiritual  state  con- 
ceivable. But  where  the  desires  are  whole,  the  object  of 
those  desires  is  conceived  but  partially.  We  may  seek  God, 
but  only  on  one  side,  or  merely  for  a  purpose.  The  seeking 
God  indicated  in  this  verse,  is  for  a  purpose,  a  purpose  fixed 
by  the  latter  clause.  The  psalmist  wishes  to  know  His  com- 
mands. The  latter  clause  is  but  a  manifestation  of  the  seek- 
ing— "let  me  not  mistake  Thy  commandments,  let  me  not 
fail  to  keep  them."  The  word  "err"  or  "wander"  indicates 
the  peculiar  significance  of  the  word  "commandment" — the 
law  as  guiding. 

Verse  11.  "In  my  heart  have  I  hid  Thy  saying,  that 
I  may  not  sin  against  Thee.' 


ifteto*  jFreOerick  La  Iftue  ifting     170 

To  hide  in  the  heart  the  saying  of  God  is  to  engage 
the  inclinations  and  affections  for  it.  The  ordinary  phrase 
"to  get  by  heart,"  while  meaning  only  to  fix  in  the  mem- 
ory, reveals  the  fact  that  ordinarily  we  remember  only  that 
which  has  impressed  us  through  our  affections.  The  young 
man's  safety  is  not  simple  restraint  of  his  inclination,  but  in 
the  engaging  of  the  whole  force  of  his  active  powers  and 
impulses  on  the  side  of  God.  This  is  effected  so  far 
as  the  young  man  is  concerned,  first,  (taking  "saying"  in 
the  sense  of  command)  by  hearing  God  in  obedient  love  and 
by  studying  the  command  and  finding  out  the  righteousness 
of  it,  how  well  calculated  it  is  to  benefit  him  and  others, 
and,  second,  (taking  "saying"  in  the  sense  of  promise)  by 
studying  to  learn  the  attractiveness  of  what  God  promises 
and  to  find  out  its  fullness;  and  where  we  cannot  see  attrac- 
tiveness, where  eye  does  not  see  and  ear  does  not  hear,  then 
exercising  faith  in  love,  by  trusting  God  for  the  character 
of  what  He  has  promised  as  well  as  for  the  performance. 
The  affections  being  once  engaged,  all  the  multitude  of 
actions  follow  easily  enough,  while  old  and  base  affections 
are  expelled  by  the  new.  Often,  Christians  would  better 
heed  the  law  if  they  better  heeded  the  promise.  The  will 
is  not  omnipotent,  and  the  Christian  like  a  jaded  beast  will 
not  be  roused  by  the  spur,  and  is  a  prey  to  doubt  and  in- 
action. But  when  the  proper  stimulus  of  prophecy  and 
promise  is  applied,  then  all  is  changed,  easy  are  labor  and 
self  denial.  He  runs  and  is  not  weary.  He  who  only  re- 
sists sin,  will  find  that  there  is  a  limit  to  his  resistance,  de- 
fined by  the  limits  of  his  natural  powers,  and  that  it  is  not 
safe  to  neglect  any  means,  that  is  appointed  by  God  and 
according  to  man's  nature.  The  youthful  Solomon,  like 
multitudes  of  expectant  kings,  was  doubtless  tempted  to  turn 
aside  to  youthful  sins,  but  the  great  expectation  before  him, 
if  his  heart  was  filled  with  the  glory  of  it  and  its  opportuni- 
ties for  doing  good  to  his  fellows,  would,  and  did,  doubtless, 
avail  to  keep  him  from  sin.      In  this  is  the  answer  to  the 


180  Selected  psalmg  anD  anemographs 

question  of  verse  nine.  Christians  nowadays,  cannot  afford 
to  do  without  the  great  incentive  to  all  right  doing,  found  in 
the  promises  of  God,  and  to  make  this  more  effective  they 
should,  by  study  of  the  prophetic  Scripture,  bring  this  prom- 
ise near  to  them,  putting  human  life  into  it,  and  grasping  it 
with  human  affections.  We  are  not  marching  to  a  land  of 
shadows,  peopled  with  ghosts;  we  are  going  to  where  alone, 
is  the  real  substance,  and  where  humanity  alone  attains  its 
full  perfection.  But  we  should  not  only  look  to  the  promise 
in  the  Word  of  God,  but  to  its  partial  performance  in  the 
world  around  us;  this  will  bring  it  very  near  to  us  and  make 
our  strivings  more  direct,  only  let  us  separate  the  real  from 
the  ideal  and  not  mistake  the  one  for  the  other,  turning  the 
partial  realization  into  an  idol  and  a  false  God. 

Verse  12.  "Blessed  (be)  Thou  Jehovah!  Teach  me 
Thy  statutes!" 

The  word  bless  is  primarily  "pray  for,"  and  to  bless 
Jehovah  is  to  pray  for  Him,  and  in  the  case  of  one  who  is 
conscious  that  nothing  can  be  added  to  the  felicity  or  power 
of  God  it  amounts  to  a  hearty  loving  assent  to  Jehovah's 
governance.  In  order  to  keep  a  young  man  in  the  way  of 
the  law  it  is  not  sufficient  that  he  should  receive  the  com- 
mands of  a  king,  he  must,  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  enthrone  that 
king,  and  as  far  as  will  goes,  endow  him  with  power.  To 
desire  that  Jehovah  should  reign  implies  a  desire  to  know 
His  commands,  and  likewise  a  desire  not  to  know  His 
commands  implies  a  latent  desire  to  dethrone  Him.  The 
word  "teach"  means,  bring  my  mind  and  heart  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  command.  They  who  first  hide  the  com- 
mands of  God  in  their  heart,  through  their  mere  fealty  to 
Him,  may  then  ask  God  to  make  them  understand  the  full 
scope  and  bearing  of  the  command. 

Verse  1 3.  "With  my  lips  have  I  recounted  all  the 
judgments  of  Thy  mouth." 

No  mere  past  act  is  referred  to  nor  is  it  so  much  a 
description  of  a  habitual  state  of  mind,  as  an  expression  of 


i&etn  jFteDerick  La  Hue  ding     181 

that  state  of  mind.  Neither  is  attention  called,  by  the  ex- 
pression "have  recounted,"  so  much  to  the  communicating 
of  God's  judgments  to  others,  as  to  the  making  of  them  his 
own.  It  would  be  a  little  thing  for  him  to  tell  God  that,  like 
a  parrot  he  repeated  His  judgments;  it  implies  comprehen- 
sion, acquiescence,  sympathy  with,  and  what  might  almost 
be  called  authoritative  reutterance.  Notice  the  parallel  ex- 
pressions "lips"  and  "mouth";  "what  Thou  hast  delivered 
by  Thy  mouth  I  redeliver  with  my  lips."  "Judgments"  in- 
cludes, first,  the  commandments  of  God,  considered  as  an 
expression  of  what  is  just,  and  also  in  reference  to  the  threat- 
enings,  expressed  or  implied,  connected  with  them.  Second, 
God's  past  sentences  of  condemnation  and  severities  upon 
the  guilty,  and  all  the  threatenings  that  have  regard  to  the 
future — His  declarations  as  to  what  He  is  about  to  bring 
upon  the  world  and  as  to  the  condition  of  the  finally  impeni- 
tent. Third,  God's  accusations  of  sin  and  statements  of  de- 
sert, and  all  that  in  the  Scriptures  which,  through  the  Holy 
Spirit  brings  home  to  a  man  God's  judgment  about  himself. 
All  these  the  servant  of  God  accepts  fully,  at  first,  through 
faith,  even  if  the  heart  shrinks  back,  afterwards  by  entering 
into  the  spirit  of  them,  first,  by  appreciating  their  justice  and 
second,  by  realizing  how  necessary  they  are  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promises  to  the  people  of  God. 

It  is  prophesied  that  in  the  end  of  the  world  God's 
people  shall  judge  the  whole  earth,  and  in  recounting  the 
judgments  of  His  mouth,  they  are  but  anticipating  as  far  as 
they  can,  their  final  position.  God's  declarations  are  some- 
times harsh  and  terrible;  these  should  not  be  believed  in  as 
something  dark  and  mysterious  and  spoken  of  with  bated 
breath.  We  should  aim  to  reutter  them  with  full  assent,  and 
maintain  them  in  the  face  of  all  blasphemers.  We  ought  to 
share  somewhat  in  the  responsibility  that  God  too  often  now 
bears  alone.  This  will  not  result  in  making  a  Christian  cold 
blooded  and  unsympathizing,  but  the  very  reverse.  The 
harsh  and  awful  forms  of  doctrine  learned  by  rote  and  re- 


182  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpfe 

peated  by  rote,  would  often  wear  a  very  different  aspect  if 
we  recognized  the  fact  that  no  doctrine  is  true  doctrine  for 
us  unless  it  is  our  own,  by  being  brought  into  thorough  har- 
mony with  ourselves.  Divine  truth  is  the  same  always,  but 
takes  special  forms  to  harmonize  it  with  the  consciousness  and 
needs  of  the  men  of  a  time;  but  men  and  times  change,  and 
these  forms  are  preserved  as  something  absolutely  true,  and 
so  doctrines  grow  as  old  fashioned  and  obsolete  as  garments. 
The  wondrous  Word  of  God  is  ever  new,  like  an  ever-during 
spring  time  in  Nature,  while  the  history  of  doctrine  is  strewed 
with  many  a  theological  form,  which  becomes  gracious  and 
even  significant,  only  when  we  adjust  it  to  the  circumstances 
in  which  it  originated.  It  is  only  by  ever  forcing  ourselves 
to  recount  with  our  lips  the  judgments  of  God's  mouth,  that 
they  become  the  truth  for  the  time,  for  only  then,  do  they 
take  on  the  form,  proper  to  our  own  age.  There 
should  be  no  such  thing  as  cast-iron-orthodoxy.  Theology 
should  be  plastic  under  the  intelligence  and  the  love  of  the 
people  of  God,  or  it  becomes  something  worse  than  the  Gib- 
eonites'  mouldy  crusts  and  withered  water  skins.  This  may 
appear  to  make  doctrine  but  a  shifting  sand;  not  so.  The 
rock  of  doctrine  upon  which  Christ  has  built  His  church  is  a 
living  rock,  a  human  soul,  mobile  and  changeful,  as  that  of 
Peter,  but,  which,  like  Peter,  first  sees  and  then  says,  "There 
is  no  safety  in  treating  the  statements  of  Scripture  as  philo- 
sophical formula  and  deducing  from  them  what  we  are 
able.  Scripture  so  modifies  Scripture,  that  it  becomes  a 
living  thing  with  the  heart,  like  the  heart  of  a  man,  and  it 
is  only  as  we  are  able  from  our  mind  and  heart  to  reutter  it, 
that  we  possess  it  at  all."  Thus  it  is  that  the  Christian  in 
recounting  with  his  lips  God's  judgments,  is  not  like  the 
underlying  of  a  tyrant,  who  must  obey  the  harsh  letter  of  his 
decision,  but  as  a  fellow  judge  of  the  King  of  Kings,  and  in 
assuming  the  judicial  position,  assumes  also  the  judicial  care, 
the  judicial  sympathy,  the  judicial  mildness,  and  a  certain 
judicial  authority,  which  will  enable  him  to  draw  from  his 


Eetn  jfreDerick  La  Eue  ifting     183 

own  heart  some  forceful  ground  of  trust  in  the  mighty  scope 
of  grace  and  mercy.  But  a  servant  of  God  is  called  upon 
to  recount  not  only  those  judgments  of  God,  which  are  harsh 
and  severe,  but  also  those  judicial  decisions,  which  bring 
deliverance  and  blessings  to  His  people.  They  who  survey 
the  field  of  history,  have  often  to  recount  God's  judgments, 
not  only  with  assent,  but  with  thankfulness;  and  such  re- 
counting will  be  in  the  far  future,  the  burden  of  the  songs 
of  the  Redeemed  ones.  Happy  they,  who  in  the  happy 
changes  of  their  lives  can  see  the  hand  of  their  God,  giving 
sentence  for  them.  This  verse,  if  indeed  it  was  written  by 
the  young  Solomon,  brings  him  before  us  as  a  preacher  of 
righteousness,  as  one  who  warned  his  peers  of  the  wrath  of 
God  upon  evil  doing.  It  could  have  hardly  been  otherwise, 
when  we  consider  Solomon's  peculiar  talents  for  governing. 
Another  Joseph,  child  of  a  loftier  promise  and  higher  hopes, 
he  doubtless,  like  the  son  of  Jacob,  reproved  his  brethren  and 
got  their  hate  therefore,  used  perhaps  God's  threatenings  to 
induce  them  to  acquiesce  in  his  advancement. 

Verse  1 4.  "In  the  way  of  Thy  testimonies  I  rejoice  as 
over  all  wealth." 

"In  the  way  of  Thy  testimonies" — in  the  doing  of  Thy 
testimonies,  as  a  means  to  an  end,  and  in  that  through  which 
the  "way  of  Thy  testimonies"  is  ever  leading.  "Flowers 
laugh  before  Thee  in  their  beds,  and  fragrance  in  Thy  foot- 
ing treads."  Wealth  is  provision  for  the  future,  present 
power,  respect  of  others,  pleasures,  means  for  the  attaining 
of  cherished  aims.  The  youth  rejoices  over  wealth  for  what 
it  immediately  brings,  he  realizes  pleasures  at  once.  Is  not 
rejoice  a  peculiarly  suitable  term  for  the  spirit  of  a  young 
man?  The  old  man  does  not  rejoice  over  wealth  for  he 
knows  how  little  it  can  do  for  him  personally.  He  clutches 
it  more  eagerly  and  understands  its  power,  but  it  is  with  a 
grave,  desolate  intenseness.  To  a  young  man,  money  is  a 
key  that  opens  the  gates  of  all  bliss.  Gold  to  him  is  gilded 
by  the  visions  of  what  is  possible  by  means  of  gold.     And 


184  Selected  psalms  anD  Q^onograpjjs 

no  young  man  that  ever  lived  was  likely  to  form  a  more 
magnificent  conception  of  what  might  be  done  with  gold  than 
Solomon.  What  a  happy  and  godly  youth  Solomon  must 
have  been!  What  heavenly  splendors  must  have  fallen 
upon  his  private  path!  What  enthusiasm  and  eagerness  and 
hope  in  the  following  out  of  the  holy  precepts!  Visions  of 
more  than  earthly  grandeur  must  have  floated  before  his 
mind.  Generally  the  feeling  that  they  have  to  resist,  who 
would  be  obedient  to  the  moral  law  is  that  it  lessens  their 
power  and  opportunities  in  this  world.  Here,  obedience  fills 
with  a  sense  of  power.  The  young  man  is  rendered  younger 
by  it,  and  if  ever  the  old  man  grows  young  again,  it  is  in 
assuming  that  childlike  state  of  perfect  loving,  hoping,  obedi- 
ence and  recognizing  it  as  the  means  to  power  and  happi- 
ness. Let  every  Christian  man  then  act  out  the  testimonies 
of  God,  bear  the  same  witness  in  his  obedience  to  them  that 
He  bore  in  enunciating  them. 

Verse  15.  "In  Thy  precepts  I  will  meditate  and  look 
at  Thy  paths." 

"Precepts,"  that  is  the  work  or  employment  that  God 
assigns  to  His  servants  to  do.  God's  commands  are  a  reve- 
lation of  His  character.  That  which  He  tells  us  to  do  He 
does  Himself,  since  we  are  created  in  His  image.  There- 
fore study  of  the  way  He  marks  out  for  us  shows  us  His 
ways,  and  in  order  to  understand  the  scope  of  the  command 
we  must  study  His  modes  of  action.  For  the  sake  of  the 
ignorant  and  the  feeble — in  order  to  let  light  gradually  upon 
their  eyes,  He  gives  His  commands  in  such  narrow  specific 
forms,  that  if  the  servant  of  God  brings  little  heart  to  the 
obeying  of  them,  it  will  be  easy  for  him  to  interpret  them 
in  such  a  way  as,  while  affecting  the  closest  legal  strictness,  to 
nullify  them  as  did  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  The  heart 
that  fears  to  find  the  law  that  would  keep  it  away  from 
itself  as  much  as  possible,  is  hasty  in  dealing  with  it,  and 
satisfies  itself  easily,  that  what  it  sees  at  a  glance  in  the  com- 
mand is  all  that  is  to  be  seen.     It  allows  the  law  to  thrust 


Iftetn  jFreDeuck  &a  Eue  l&ing     185 

itself  upon  its  notice,  but  does  not  search  after  it.  This 
young  man  gives  himself  wholly  to  the  law,  meditates  in  the 
precepts.  He  has  made  them  externally  his  own,  and  has 
hid  them  in  his  heart;  now  he  expands  them  from  himself — 
he  makes  them  to  germinate  in  his  soul,  he  carries  out  their 
idea  and  finds  how  broad  it  is,  sees  that  it  sets  forth  God's 
character  and  falls  to  studying  God's  ways  as  a  commentary 
upon  the  command.  He  looks  forward  at  God's  paths  as 
those  in  which  he  is  to  tread  and  prepares  himself  to  "walk 
in  His  ways,"  (verse  3)  as  the  true  and  only  full  obedience 
to  the  precept.  There  is  something  in  the  word  used  for 
path  that  suggests  the  idea  of  God  as  a  way-farer,  as  being 
occupied  upon  a  path  rather  than  as  using  it  as  a  means  to 
an  end.  As  if  it  was  "the  paths  you  use,  the  paths  you 
travel  on."  The  idea  of  employment,  customary  occupa- 
tion, is  suggested  perhaps.  "I  will  meditate  in  the  occupa- 
tions you  give  me,  and  your  occupations,  and  look  to  the 
paths  you  go  to  and  fro  upon." 

Verse  16.  "In  Thy  statutes  I  will  delight  myself;  I 
will  not  forget  Thy  word." 

The  word  of  promise  casts  light  upon  the  statute.  If 
"word"  is  understood  as  meaning  simply  law,  then  the  last 
clause  is  an  anti-climax  that  produces  a  very  bad  effect.  But 
as  "word"  is  the  word  of  God's  promise,  then  in  his  not 
forgetting  the  promise,  lies  the  key  to  his  delight  in  God's 
statutes.  Where  the  statute  or  arbitrary  order  of  God  seems 
to  cut  off  all  hope  of  happiness,  then  the  promise  assures  him 
that  all  will  be  right  in  the  end.  Faith  in  God's  promise  is 
needed  to  enable  him  to  delight  in  the  statute.  To  the  sight 
it  may  appear  not  comely,  to  the  taste  bitter,  in  the  use 
painful,  but  the  Word  lightens  up  all. 

GIMEL. 

Verse  1  7.  "Grant  to  Thy  servant  (that)  I  may  live, 
and  I  will  keep  Thy  word." 


186  Selected  psalms  and  e$onogtap&s 

Throughout  this  stanza,  except  the  1 8th  verse,  there 
is  a  plain  implication,  where  there  is  not  a  direct  statement, 
that  the  writer  is  surrounded  by  enemies  and  peril.  The 
petition  here,  then,  is  not  that  God  will  not  take  away  his 
life,  but  that  He  will  defend  him.  The  latter  clause  may 
be  of  the  nature  of  a  covenant,  perfectly  proper  where  God's 
part  is  evidently  understood  to  be  gracious,  as  in  the  case  of 
Jacob's  covenant.  If  then,  God  will  be  so  gracious  as  to 
lengthen  out  my  day,  I  then  will  honor  His  promise  by  hold- 
ing fast  to  it.  Indeed,  the  two  clauses  are  not  to  be  under- 
stood apart.  The  first  is  not  a  bare  petition,  but  also  a 
claim  for  the  fulfilment  of  a  promise — "fulfil  Thy  promise 
by  granting  me  life,  and  then  I  will  be  able  to  trust  in  the 
promise  proved  to  be  faithful."  But  the  first  clause  is  a  true 
petition  and  it  is  to  be  noted  here  that  the  fulfilment  of  God's 
gracious  promises  are  to  be  sued  humbly  for,  by  the  servant 
of  God.  For  it  is  clear  that  when  we  appeal  to  God  for 
the  fulfilment  of  His  promises,  we  are  almost  always  asking 
for  the  realization  of  our  own  conception  of  the  promise 
itself,  or  of  the  time  and  manner  of  its  fulfilment.  It  is  per- 
fectly right  that  our  petitions  should  be  colored  by  our  own 
special  views  and  desires,  and  God  may  choose  to  fulfil  His 
promise  in  accordance  with  them,  or  He  may  choose  another 
way,  for  He  is  always  free.  Thus  it  is  that  the  claim  for 
the  fulfilment  of  a  gracious  promise  imports  the  struggle  of 
faith,  since  it  is  not  the  promise  absolute  that  we  crave,  but 
the  promise  as  shaped  and  modified  by  our  desires.  The 
prayer  of  Daniel  for  the  deliverance  of  the  Jews,  according 
to  God's  promise  at  the  time  when  he  became  convinced 
that  the  limit  of  seventy  years,  assigned  to  the  Captivity,  by 
the  prophet  Jeremiah,  had  arrived,  is  a  model  for  all 
claims  on  God  based  on  His  promises.  God  will  not  be 
tied  up  even  by  His  promises,  and  it  behooves  faith  to  be 
lowly  while  persistent,  or  God  will  find  a  way  to  fulfil  His 
promises  and  at  the  same  time  disappoint  over-confidence. 
There  is  this  besides  in  the  clauses  as  they  stand — "let  me 


Iftetn  jFreDetick  JLa  Eue  Ifting     t87 

live,  and  then  it  will  be  possible  for  me  to  keep  Thy  word, 
for  'the  dead  praise  Thee  not.'  '  The  keeping  of  God's 
word  implies  not  only  keeping  a  confident  heart  in  the  prom- 
ise, but  also  all  witness  of  words  and  acts  of  confidence  to 
God's  faithfulness. 

Verse  1  8.  "Uncover  my  eyes  and  I  will  look, — won- 
ders out  of  Thy  law." 

"Law"  here,  as  in  verse  I ,  signifies  the  whole  cult,  es- 
pecially the  ceremonial  and  symbolical  part  of  it, — the  "law" 
that  is  perfect  "restoring  the  soul."  The  wonders  that  one 
would  expect  to  shine  forth  from  such  a  law  are  wonders 
of  grace  and  mercy,  and  these  are  just  what  would  de- 
light and  astonish  the  psalmist,  who  in  these  verses,  declares 
himself  to  be  in  so  much  peril  and  distress.  For  when  a 
servant  of  God  is  in  such  a  case,  that  which  sharpens  the 
swords  of  his  enemies  and  makes  his  strength  as  weakness 
is  the  thought  that  God  is  against  him  or  does  not  care.  He 
is  full  of  fear  then,  not  so  much  by  reason  of  the  dangers 
around  him,  as  because  his  eyes  are  covered,  so  that  he 
sees  not  God's  gracious  countenance.  This  is  by  reason  of 
first,  ignorance;  the  grace  in  the  law  was  somewhat  hidden, 
and  spiritual  insight  was  needed ;  second,  want  of  faith ;  third, 
dreadful  sense  of  guilt;  fourth,  surrounding  fears;  fifth,  by 
relying  on  God's  name  rather  than  Himself,  that  is,  expectingof 
God  and  as  King,  asking  Him  for  only  what  He  has  previous- 
ly done,  instead  of  relying  upon  His  infinite  power  and  love  to 
do  anything,  however  new  and  strange.  God  enlightens  him 
a  little,  strengthens  a  little  his  faith,  somewhat  eases  his  bur- 
den, gives  him  a  little  stouter  heart,  or  lessens  the  stress  of 
his  perils,  and  shows  him  His  gracious  self,  so  that  the 
man  begins  faintly  to  believe  that  even  if  his  case  is  peculiar, 
and  though  he  cannot  have  a  warrant  in  God's  past  dealings 
and  specific  promises,  still  he  may  have  what  he  needs.  And 
so,  his  eyes  being  uncovered,  he  begins  to  look.  We  cannot 
expect  the  blessed  revelations  of  God  to  thrust  themselves 


188  ^electeU  psalms  anO  ®onogtap!)0 

upon  our  attention.  We  must  look,  and  every  look  is  re- 
warded. The  measure  we  mete  to  the  word  of  God  shall 
be  measured  to  us.  If  with  really  uncovered  eyes  we  look 
with  utter  faith,  we  shall  be  rewarded  by  the  sight  of  "won- 
ders," wonders  of  general  grace,  and  also  of  God's  special 
good  will  not  only  in  the  long  run  but  now.  We  will  then 
see  that  the  observance  of  God's  law  is  protection,  policy, 
deliverance,  and  in  the  very  presence  of  our  enemies,  we  are 
full  of  amazement  to  find  ourselves  in  a  fortress.  These 
wonders  are  like  the  wonders  shown  to  the  servant  of  the 
prophet,  when  he  had  his  eyes  opened  and  saw  chariots  and 
horses  of  fire  around  him,  and  his  master,  and  saw  that  the 
source  of  his  danger  was  in  turn  endangered.  So  shall  pass 
away,  as  a  dream,  the  terrors  of  those  who  trust  in  the 
Lord. 

Verse  19.  "A  stranger  (am)  I  in  the  earth;  hide 
not  from  me  Thy  commandments." 

The  latter  clause,  the  stranger's  special  request,  indi- 
cates the  special  view  taken  of  the  stranger's  need  of  "Com- 
mandments" are  God's  precepts  of  guidance — all  that  is  in- 
cluded in  the  English  phrase,  "showing  the  way."  The 
"stranger  may  know  what  to  do,  but  "how  to  do,"  that  he 
lacks.  He  knows  where  he  wants  to  go,  and  has  certain 
ends  to  attain,  but  he  cannot  find  the  right  way.  He  knows 
not  the  ways  of  the  people  around  him,  and  therefore  he 
knows  not  the  way  he  ought  to  act.  Such  a  stranger  was 
young  Solomon;  he  must  have  hardly  known  whom  to  trust 
or  how  to  act.  But  he  is  not  merely  a  stranger  in  the  court 
or  the  land.  Then  he  could  hope  that  a  little  change  in 
his  circumstances  would  alter  his  situation  completely.  But 
he  is  more  than  a  stranger  in  the  land;  he  is  a  stranger  in 
the  earth.  The  little  sphere  of  trouble  in  which  he  dwells, 
shows  to  him  that  wider  trouble  that  enwraps  the  whole 
world.  He  feels  that  to  make  this  earth  anywhere  or  under 
any  circumstances  a  home  for  him,  there  must  be  a  radical 
change.     He  looks  forward  to  a  life  passed  amid  a  stranger's 


i&eto*  ^Frederick  La  Iftue  Ifting     189 

hardships  and  precious  becomes  the  guidance  of  God  to 
him.  In  the  petition  "hide  not"  is  implied  that  God  does 
sometimes  hide  the  guide  posts  in  the  strange  land  and 
leave  us  to  our  own  devices  for  a  while.  He  is  not  bound 
to  make  things  easy  for  us.  To  let  us  alone  for  awhile  to 
grope  our  way  out  is  often  a  part  of  the  improving  disci- 
pline of  His  providence.  Christians,  as  well  as  the  ancient 
people  of  God,  are  taught  and  strengthened  in  this  way.  Yet 
it  is  a  perilous  position.  It  is  sometimes  a  necessasy  evil  as 
was  the  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  but  still  it  is  an  evil. 
Blessed  they,  who  are  guided  ever,  from  whom  God  does  not 
hide  His  commandments.  For  this  is  often  done  as  a  punish- 
ment. They,  who  neglect  God's  guidance  will  have  to  do 
without  it  and  thereby  learn  to  prize  it.  Happy  are  they, 
if  it  be  restored  to  them  before  they  have  wandered  far  out 
of  the  way.  It  is  at  best  a  time  of  perplexity  and  sorrow; 
and  a  Christian  may  well  pray  to  be  delivered  from  it  and 
not  to  be  led  into  it.  Those  who  use  God's  guidance  are 
those  from  whom  it  will  not  be  taken.  To  those  who  have, 
more  shall  be  given,  and  from  those  who  have  not,  shall  be 
taken  even  what  they  have.  They  who  feel  and  acknow- 
ledge that  they  are  strangers  on  the  earth,  are  the  very  ones 
who  will  be  guided.  To  have  the  stranger  spirit  is  to  have 
a  claim  on  God,  who  in  His  law,  made  strangers  an  especial 
object  of  compassion,  and  whose  law  is  a  reflex  of  Himself. 

Verse  20.  "My  soul  breaketh  with  longings  for  Thy 
judgments  at  every  time." 

"Breaketh  with  longing"  is  a  hyperbole  like  the  familiar 
one,  "he  was  dying  to  do"  so  and  so.  To  have  my  desire 
is  necessary  to  my  life.  Intense  desire  is  indicated.  This 
desire  indicates  not  merely  that  the  psalmist  is  at  the  time,  in 
great  peril  and  in  need  of  God's  delivering  judgments;  for  the 
statement  is  made  as  universal  as  in  the  preceding  verse.  The 
psalmist  is  not  only  a  stranger  everywhere,  but  at  all  times  in 
great  need  of  God's  judgments.  The  little  peril  and  loss  of 
God's  children  is  the  means  through  the  Spirit  of  making 


190  Selected  pgalms  and  ^onogtapfjg 

them  know  their  infinite  loss — their  lost  estate,  the  lost  estate 
of  the  world,  the  thorough  need  there  is  of  a  deliverer.  No 
little  change  will  deliver  them  from  their  care.  When  a  fair 
day  comes,  they  still  call  out  to  a  delivering  God  as  in  the 
tempest,  for  His  power  alone  makes  the  day  fair  and  keeps 
it  so.  They  that  know  how  to  agonize  in  supplication  in 
the  hour  of  prosperity  are  those  who  alone  hang  upon  God 
and  have  any  right  to  be  secure.  The  realized  blessings  of 
God,  if  trusted  in,  become  the  peace  of  this  world  that  is 
easily  broken;  but  we  must  not  trust  in  God's  blessings,  but 
in  God  Himself.  This  intense  longing,  this  heart  breaking 
desire,  for  God's  judgments  in  times  of  distress,  implies  con- 
siderable faith.  There  is  no  despair  where  there  is  longing. 
"At  all  times"  would  imply  a  readiness  to  receive  God's 
judgments  with  regard  to  our  character,  either  in  the  way 
of  His  providential  dealings  or  having  our  eyes  opened  by 
His  holy  Word.  Such  judgments  are  very  mortifying,  but 
hard  and  humbling  though  they  are,  are  very  precious,  and 
happy  that  man  that  holds  himself  ready,  ever  ready  for 
them.  These  words  imply  a  readiness  to  receive  God's  judg- 
ments with  reference  to  our  own  wishes  and  aims,  no  matter 
how  contradictory  to  them.  The  true  servant  of  God  never 
desires  to  take  the  bit  in  his  teeth,  but  is  ready  to  have  the 
curb  applied  at  any  moment  and  be  guided  to  the  right  or 
left  by  God's  judgments — commands,  of  which  we  can  only 
say,  "God  judges  best."  And  all  this,  without  any  sullen- 
ness;  for  more  than  ready  and  willing  submission  is  implied 
by  this  longing;  hope,  trust,  love,  fills  the  heart,  even  under 
the  greatest  disappointment.  And  this,  too,  although  God's 
decisions  often  come  suddenly  and  are  therefore  all  the 
harder  to  bear,  and  although  these  sudden  chastisements, 
checks  and  commands  come  not  directly  from  God  Himself, 
but  through  medium  of  creatures  and  things.  If  indeed,  the 
young  Solomon  wrote  this,  he  had  early  a  deep  experience  of 
the  need  we  have  of  the  presence  of  the  living  God.  He 
doubtless  saw  many  pleasant     and  hopeful     days     bringing 


l&eto*  jFreDerick  JLa  Eue  Ifting     191 

present  deliverance  and  power  and  opening  a  prospect  of 
better  things,  but  this  did  not  deceive  him;  he  knew  nothing 
but  discouragement  without  God. 

Verse  21.  "Thou  hast  rebuked  the  proud,  the 
accused  those  wandering  from  Thy  Commandment." 

Rebuked,  that  is,  with  judgments.  Because  it  was 
done  in  times  past,  he  has  full  confidence  now.  "For  this 
God  is  our  God,"  Ps.  48.  In  the  word  "proud"  we  have  a 
glimpse  of  his  enemies  and  the  spirit  that  opposed  Solomon's 
rise  to  the  throne.  It  was  not  merely  the  selfish  desire  for 
advancement  on  the  part  of  his  brothers,  but  the  proud  desire 
on  their  part  and  that  of  their  adherents  to  have  the  kingship, 
independent  of  God,  to  have  God  remanded  to  the  position 
of  the  object  of  religious  worship  by  the  nation,  without  in- 
terfering in  political  matters.  Because  they  are  "proud," 
they  are  accused.  Their  pride  sets  them  apart  for  destruc- 
tion. The  word  "wandering"  indicates  the  directive  char- 
acter of  what  are  termed,  "commandments."  A  proud  per- 
son may  submit  to  be  told  what  to  do,  many  a  proud  per- 
son in  feudal  times  readily  called  another  his  master,  but  it 
is  hard  for  a  proud  person  to  bend  his  mind  to  receive  di- 
rections. We  see  this  in  the  fact  that  it  is  socially  creditable 
to  do  hard  work,  and  that  for  hire,  if  only  one  in  the  details 
of  the  work  directs  one's  self.  The  proud  party  in  Israel 
hated  that  their  king  should  be  turned  into  a  servant.  Inde- 
pendent authority  is  necessary  to  respect.  That  which  makes 
domestic  service  socially  degrading  was  exemplified,  to  the 
minds  of  the  carnal  in  Israel,  in  the  case  of  David,  who  was 
the  Lord's  servant  indeed.  The  kings  of  Assyria  and  Egypt 
and  other  nations  were  ready  enough  to  proclaim  themselves 
the  servants  of  their  gods,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  Assyrian 
king,  even  the  servant  of  Jehovah  to  overthrow  Jerusalem. 
But  as  the  prophet  Isaiah  says  in  the  1  Oth  chapter,  "Howbeit 
he  meaneth  not  so."  It  was,  after  all,  an  hypocrisy.  Their 
pride  showed  their  independence.  It  was  to  low  ideas  of 
God  that  this  unwillingness  to  become  subservient  to  Him, 


192  Selected  psalms  ano  a^onogtapjjg 

was  due.  Once  believe  that  He  is  the  Infinite  One — infinite 
in  Wisdom,  Love  and  Power,  and  to  be  His  lacquey  is 
honor  in  the  most  honorable.  That  interfering  specific  di- 
rection that  the  humble  heart  craves  and  often  carnally  craves 
is  especially  distasteful  to  the  proud  worldling.  He  detests 
God's  interference  not,  be  it  noticed,  in  religious  matters,  but 
in  business  matters.  The  worldling  delights  in  ritual  religion, 
and  also  often  in  sentimental  religion,  if  only  God  will  leave 
affairs  alone.  There  are  many  evangelical  Christians,  who 
will  make  God  the  author  and  finisher  of  Salvation,  and  su- 
preme in  Heaven,  who  would  not  like  Him  to  meddle  with 
their  private  business,  or  their  political  transactions,  or  the 
details  of  their  ecclesiastical  or  benevolent  enterprises.  "Wan- 
dering from  Thy  commandments,"  means  not  merely  break- 
ing them  or  offending  against  the  spirit  of  them,  but  shrinking 
from  the  very  idea  of  being  commanded,  avoiding  the  hear- 
ing of  a  command.  The  action  of  pride  in  avoiding  God's 
commandments  is  seen  in  the  unwillingness  of  Christians  to 
be  directed  by  providential  circumstances,  by  others,  even 
those  who  are  near  them  and  whom  they  regard  as  their 
inferiors.  When  God's  Word  comes  to  us  through  our  fel- 
low it  is  most  harassing  to  human  pride.  They  who  were 
willing  to  hear  God's  word  from  Heaven,  were  unwilling 
to  hear  it  from  the  tabernacle,  and  they  who  would  re- 
ceive it  thence,  would  not  receive  it  from  His  minister,  and 
they  who  now  will  listen  to  God's  minister,  will  not  hear  it 
from  a  fellow  often  little,  ignorant,  disliked,  and  even  wicked, 
and  yet  true  humility  is  especially  seen  in  this  latter  sub- 
mission. 

Verse  22.  "Roll  from  off  me  reproach  and  contempt, 
for  Thy  testimonies  I  have  kept." 

Alexander  thinks  that  there  is  some  allusion  here  to 
the  rolling  off  the  "reproach  of  Egypt"  which  meant,  what- 
ever else  it  may  have  meant,  the  ending  of  a  long  term  of 
disgrace  and  a  final  taking  of  His  chosen  people  into  favor 
by  God.     If  we  apply  this  to  the  case  of  the  youthful  Solo- 


Eeto*  jfreDettck  La  Iftue  ifting     193 

mon,  it  has  great  force  and  beauty.     His  novitiate  was  doubt- 
less a  term  of  relative  disgrace.     An  heir  apparent,  who  fold- 
ed his  hands,  and  who  at  the  same  time  was  surrounded  by 
other  pretenders,  who  were  free  by  their  want  of  principle 
to  make  a  show  of  energy,  and  who  seemed,  as  far  as  earthly 
things  went,  to  have  much  the  better  prospect  of  attaining 
the  kingdom.      "Make  this  all  to  end,"  he  asks.   "Would 
that  I  mght  be  acknowledged  as  the  heir  to  the  throne,  and 
that  my  credit  for  energy  might  suffer  no  more  diminution." 
Doubtless  his  inaction  would  lead  shrewd  men  to  think  that 
he  had  not  the  kingly  qualities.     He  certainly  had  not  the 
heroic  qualities  so  necessary  in  the  founding  of  the  kingdom, 
and  there   must   have  been  a  very  strong  temptation   ever 
instant  to  show  the  ability  as  a  politician,  which  he  as  cer- 
tainly had,  and  cause  himself  to  be  recognized  as  a  man 
of  power.     The  position  of  an  heir  apparent  is  very  often 
a  trying  one;  mean  men  are  over  him,  and  have  power  and 
glory,  while  he  is  doomed  to  a  forced  inactivity.      But  in 
this  case  the  trial  was  in  part  avoidable,  if  only  he  could  give 
up  principle,  and  he  is  able  to  plead  the  fact  that  his  re- 
proach and  contempt  were  caused  by  his  adherence  to  the 
"testimonies"  of  God — His  Moral  law.     This  is  the  reason 
he  adduces  why  God  should  put  an  end  to  his  period  of 
trial.      One  cannot  but  sympathize  with  Solomon,  in  that 
splendid  removal  of  his  reproach,  when  suddenly  the  sum- 
mons came  for  him  to  be  crowned,  his  father  yet  remaining 
alive.      Those  must  have  been  happy  years   of  power  and 
prosperity,  when  he  had  his  father  and  his  throne  and  could 
at  last  show  what  was  in  him.     Christians  are  often  called 
upon  to  suffer  reproach  and  contempt  in  this  way.      In  all 
the  spheres  of  man's  activity  they  often  succeed  best  in  mak- 
ing a  figure,  who  are  without  principle.     The  very  careful- 
ness to  do  what  is  just  right,  tends  often  to  make  man  appear 
weak   and   wanting  in   energy.      A   magnificent   fortune,    a 
mighty  conquest,  a  great  literary  reputation,  can  sometimes 
be  had  at  the  price  of  a  little  compliance  with  the  fashion  of 


194  Selected  psalms  anD  e^onograpirs 

this  world — a  little  regardlessness  of  the  will  of  God.  Chris- 
tians are  yet  of  the  weak  in  this  world.  Principle  is  not  yet 
power  or  glory.  But  that  which  is  now  weak  and  despised, 
God  has  appointed  to  be  the  overthrowing  of  the  world  and 
its  successor  in  power.  The  Christian  should  be  willing  to 
be  little,  if  obedience  to  God's  testimonies  makes  him  little; 
the  time  will  come  when  his  reproach  will  be  removed.  No 
doubt,  if  worldly  men  could  have  been  present  at  our  Sa- 
viour's temptation,  they  would  have  reproached  and  des- 
pised the  scrupulousness  that  refused  present  power.  And 
no  doubt,  He  was  reproached  again  and  again,  because  He 
would  not  use  His  power  and  proclaim  Himself  King.  He 
appeared  ever  shrinking  from  power  and  responsibility.  And 
yet  He  was  heir  apparent,  of  the  world,  and  by  using  the 
passions  of  the  world  He  could  apparently  come  to  His  own, 
much  sooner.  But  He  must  be  clean,  and  thus  He  had  to 
endure  much  and  wait  long,  before  His  day  of  triumph 
came.  He  is  even  waiting  yet,  He  is  not  yet  fully  vindicated. 
He  yet  appears  to  the  world,  though  good  and  loving,  yet 
lacking  the  qualities  of  a  practical  ruler,  who  can  be  mighty 
in  affairs  and  among  men.  But  when  the  day  of  His  return 
comes,  then  the  reproach  and  contempt  will  be  rolled  at  last 
away.  Then,  terrible  as  the  dread  that  fell  upon  Joab  and 
Adonijah,  when  the  young  Solomon  ascended  the  throne, 
will  be  the  awe  that  will  fall  upon  the  nations  when  He  shall 
come,  whose  right  it  is  to  rule  and  reign.  Christians  if  you 
follow  closely  your  Master  in  these  days,  you  must  make 
up  your  minds  to  lose  much  reputation.  You  cannot  expect 
to  be  treated  better  than  your  King.  Wait  then,  rest  under 
your  reproach  during  the  night  of  reproach,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing it  will  be  rolled  away.  God  will  roll  it  away.  We 
must  not  be  too  careful  to  justify  ourselves  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  that  leads  to  compromise  and  concession  and 
temptation,  and  to  the  Christian  becoming  worldly  in  the 
end.  See  to  it  also,  that  the  reproach  of  sloth  is  not  justly 
incurred.     Despise  not  the  day  of  small  things.     Let  not  dis- 


Retn  jFreDerick  JLa  Eue  fting     195 

couragement  palsy  activity.  Do  what  your  hand  findeth  to 
do,  with  all  your  might,  and  though  you  may  not  seem  to 
effect  much,  you  will  bear  a  witness  to  your  absent  King 
as  shall  make  the  world  of  darkness  tremble.  And  you  may 
besides,  be  doing  mighty  things  that  you  know  not  of.  In 
the  tales  of  the  Northern  Mythology,  the  god  Thor,  once 
upon  a  time,  finds  himself  in  the  home  of  his  giant  enemies, 
and  matches  himself  in  rivalry  with  their  might.  But  all 
in  vain;  he  cannot  drain  a  goblet,  he  cannot  lift  a  cat  from 
the  floor,  and  three  blows  of  his  hammer,  given  in  dead  earn- 
est, produce  no  effect  at  all.  But  afterwards,  as  the  story 
states,  he  finds  that  the  goblet  was  ever  filled  up  by  the 
sea,  and  his  drinking  caused  a  mighty  ebb.  The  cat  was 
the  great  serpent,  which  as  they  fabled,  bound  in  safety  the 
home  of  the  Jotuns,  while  they  jeered  him,  were  expecting 
every  moment,  their  utter  destruction,  and  three  great  valleys 
were  made  by  the  blows  of  his  hammer,  that  seemed  to  him 
utterly  inefficient.  Deep  is  the  concealment  that  hides  now 
from  the  Christian,  the  worth  of  what  he  does;  but  bright 
will  be  the  light  that  will  reveal  to  the  servant  of  God,  not 
merely  that  he  is  entering  into  power  and  honor,  but  that 
he  was  not  contemptible,  even  in  the  days  of  his  contempt. 

Verse  23.  "Also  princes  sat  and  at  me  talked  to- 
gether, and  Thy  servant  muses  of  Thy  statutes." 

He,  also  is  not  grammatically  connected  with  the  pre- 
ceding sentence,  but  is  connected  in  sense.  He  not  only 
suffers  reproach  and  contempt,  but  is  "also"  the  object  of 
an  intrigue — a  conspiracy  of  princes.  Alexander  translates 
"talked  at  me."  This  would  mean  that  they  talked,  so 
that  he  could  hear  what  they  said  against  him.  But  the 
Hebrew  means  only  "talked  about  me,"  with  a  strong  im- 
plication that  they  talked  against  him.  Still,  it  is  but  an 
implication.  The  word  "sat"  implies  deliberaton  and  signifi- 
cant deliberation — conspiracy.  They  were  princes,  too,  who 
were  in  deliberation  against  him — persons  who  had  power  to 
do  him  harm.     The  very  fact  of  these  princes  engaging  in 


196  Selected  psalms  ana  9§onogtapl)0 

an  intrigue,  shows  the  dignity  of  him  against  whom  they 
conspire.  It  is  a  strong  proof  that  we  are  right  in  ascribing 
this  psalm  to  Solomon.  The  young  Solomon  must  often 
have  been  aware  of  just  such  malicious  consultations  against 
him,  and  perhaps  could,  even  upon  occasion  see  his  enemies 
as  they  sat  and  talked.  Nothing  could  be  conceived  more 
disturbing;  naturally  it  would  make  the  mind  all  alert  with 
the  attempt  to  know  what  was  said  about  him.  We  all 
know  how  difficult  it  is  to  abstract  the  attention  from  ordi- 
nary conversation  going  on  about  us,  and  fix  it  upon  a  matter 
in  hand.  But  here  were  enemies — powerful  enemies — 
against  whom  it  would  be  desirable  to  counterplot,  and 
therefore  to  understand  their  designs,  and  yet  he  does  not 
think  of  them  or  their  plots.  He  muses;  the  expression  im- 
plies retired  contemplation.  In  the  very  presence  of  his 
enemies  (for  this  is  the  picture  presented), 
he  is  in  his  closet,  alone  with  the  decrees  of  God.  The  title 
that  he  gives  himself  of  "servant"  is  suited  to  the  word 
translated  "statutes."  A  servant  is  one  who  obeys  direc- 
tions, whether  he  understands  them  or  not — obeys  the  will 
of  another  as  expressed  by  a  command;  and  the  word  trans- 
lated "statutes"  describes  the  law  as  the  fixed  and  unalter- 
able expression  of  the  will  of  God  without  any  reference  to 
its  character.  It  might  be  translated  by  the  word  "decrees" 
or  "orders" — "Thy  servant  muses  on  Thy  orders."  God's 
servant  meditates  upon  His  decrees,  perhaps  to  find  out  why 
it  is  so  decreed,  perhaps  to  ascertain  exactly  what  is  decreed 
and  how  to  go  to  work  to  obey,  but  most  of  all,  he  muses 
in  pleasant  thought,  gloating  over  the  possession  of  the  decree, 
feeling  safe  as  against  all  plotters,  in  obedience  to  it.  In  the 
case  of  the  young  Solomon,  able,  shrewd  and  caculating  by 
nature,  it  shows  a  great  height  of  faith  that  he  should  ne- 
glect to  fathom  the  plans  of  his  enemies,  should  be  indifferent 
as  to  what  those  plans  were  exactly,  and  in  their  very  pres- 
ence and  amid  their  false  intrigues,  should  be  drawn  away 
to  musing  upon  God's  orders  to  him.     And  wise  it  would  be, 


Eeti,  jfteoerick  La  Eue  ifting     197 

for  all  God's  servants  to  follow  his  example.  Many  a  child 
of  God  from  his  eagerness  to  know  designs  against  him,  has 
exhibited  and  increased  his  want  of  faith;  has  been  kept  in 
a  constant  fever,  spying  out  and  divining  the  changing  plans 
of  his  enemies,  when  the  final  one  was  all  that  behooved  him 
to  know;  has  had  his  thoughts  turned  away  from  God,  been 
tempted  to  fish  in  muddy  waters,  to  deal  with  questionable 
persons,  and  to  sin.  If  you  have,  O,  child  of  God,  His  de- 
cree, then  be  happy  and  contented  and  safe  in  the  knowing 
of  it  and  obeying  of  it.  In  your  hours  of  helpless  ignorance 
of  what  your  enemies  devise,  you  will  be  in  secret  with  God, 
and  have  pleasant  times  of  submissive  love,  content  to  run. 
all  risks  for  the  sake  of  obeying,  not  because  the  command 
seems  wise  or  right,  but  because  God  wills.  The  decree 
upon  which  the  servant  of  God  muses  in  the  presence  of 
conspiring  enemies  is  the  order  which  comes  to  him  to  wait 
and  do  nothing.  This  order  is  announced  often,  simply 
through  the  circumstances  which  hedge  us  up  and  make 
action  difficult,  without  trenching  on  right. 

Verse  24.  "Also  Thy  testimonies  (are)  my  delights, 
the  men  of  my  counsel." 

The  same  law,  upon  which  the  psalmist  mused  in  its 
aspect  of  irreversible  decree,  is  now  in  its  aspect  of  testimony 
appealing  to  the  intuitions  of  right  in  the  servant  of  God, 
spoken  of  as  his  delights.  One  is  reminded  of  the  Latin 
word  "deliciae,"  so  often  used  to  signify  intimacy  and  de- 
lightful intercourse.  For  the  law  is  not  merely  an  arbitrary  ex- 
pression of  will  on  the  part  of  God,  but  it  is  a  better  philoso- 
phy. "It  is  nigh  unto  thee,"  says  Moses;  it  justifies  itself  to 
the  man,  and  appeals  to  his  higher  nature.  The  two  parts 
of  the  correlation  are  adjusted  thus.  He  delights  in  the 
"Testimonies,"  and  therefore  they  have  influence  and  be- 
come his  counsellors.  They  are  able  to  guide  him  into  good 
policy — they  are  themselves  good  policy,  as  against  his  plot- 
ting enemies,  and  therefore  he  delights  in  them.  In  verse  23 
we  see  the  servant  of  Jehovah  making  no  attempt  to  fathom 


198  ©electeD  psalms  ano  Qponogtapljs 

the  purposes  of  his  enemies;  carried  away  rather  with  the 
desire  to  fathom  the  fathomless  import  of  the  decrees  of  God. 
In  verse  24  we  have  the  same  servant,  knowing  the  hostile 
designs  of  his  enemies,  but  finding  it  the  height  of  policy 
and  better  than  any  counter  move,  or  the  best  counter  move 
of  all,  simply  to  obey  the  moral  law.  In  the  case  of  Solo- 
mon, who  showed  in  his  after  history,  how  able  he  was  in 
devising  and  executing  that  which  would  thwart  the  pur- 
poses of  his  opposers,  this  must  have  required  a  strong  effort 
of  faith.  How  well,  if.  every  Christian  could  be  quiet  after 
this  manner — could  say  "hands  off"  to  his  restless  energies. 
His  faith  would  be  strengthened — it  would  not  be  weakened 
by  humble  reliance.  A  great  burden,  too,  would  be  re- 
moved from  his  shoulders,  did  he  feel  that  he  could  wisely 
depend  upon  holy  obedience.  It  was  something  to  turn  his 
attention  away  from  his  plotting  foes,  but  it  was  more  to 
put  aside  his  friends  and  partizans,  eager  to  advise,  or  if, 
as  may  be,  the  implication  that  he  was  lonely  and  without  a 
friend,  to  feel  as  content  and  safe  with  the  testimonies  of  his 
God  for  his  only  counsellors,  as  if  he  had  around  him  a  synod 
of  Ahi  thophels.  And  well  is  his  confidence  placed.  They 
who  make  God's  testimonies  their  own,  become  in  their  own 
persons,  living  witnesses,  imaging  God's  moral  character. 
And  if  they  are  like  Him  in  moral  perfection,  they  will  not 
fail  to  be  like  Him  in  victorious  might  in  the  end.  The  ark 
of  the  covenant,  where  God's  testmonies  were  laid,  was  the 
center  of  the  power  and  glory  of  God  in  the  camp  of  Israel, 
and  they  who  have  the  testimonies  of  their  God  laid  up  in 
their  hearts  may  be  assured  that  they  dwell  in  the  secret  place 
of  thunder.  Thou  who  holily  obeyest  hast  on  thy  side  all 
that,  which  is  infinite  and  universal,  on  thy  side  thou  hast 
"powers  that  will  work  for  thee.  There's  not  a  breathing  of 
the  common  wind,  that  can  forget  thee,  thou  hast  great 
allies,"  and  never  canst  thou  utterly  be  overthrown. 


Ifteto,  jFreOetick  Ha  IRue  ifting     199 

DALETH. 

Verse  25.  "My  soul  cleaveth  unto  the  dust;  quicken 
Thou  me  according  to  Thy  word." 

The  soul  or  life  cleaving  to  the  dust  would  be  literally 
death,  in  which  all  that  remains  of  life  to  the  eye,  is  dust 
among  dust.  And  to  this  suits  the  word  "quicken"  in  the 
second  clause.  Literal  death  is  not  meant  here,  nor  is  it  prob- 
able that  sickness  near  to  death  is  indicated.  Under  the 
forms  of  physical  dying,  is  set  forth  here  a  loss  of  moral 
energy  from  whatever  cause  arising.  A  certain  political 
economist  describes  a  man's  life  as  a  struggle  between  vitality, 
tending  to  keep  him  erect  and  gravity  trying  to  pull  him 
down  to  the  dust;  in  the  end  the  forces  of  nature  overcom- 
ing the  forces  of  life  and  bringing  a  man  down  to  the  grave. 
One  of  the  most  terrible  experiences  of  extreme  sickness  is 
the  consciousness  of  this  mighty  power  of  earth  crushing  one 
down  without  help  or  hope.  This  verse  may  refer  to  such  a 
time  of  prostration  in  sickness,  but  these  words  are  too  strong 
for  mere  sickness,  to  be  sick  and  even  near  to  death  is  com- 
paratively a  little  thing,  if  the  soul  is  erect  and  of  good 
cheer.  The  complaint  of  the  psalmist,  especially  if  we  con- 
sider the  succeeding  verse,  evidently  is  that  he  has  lost  heart 
through  discouragement.  At  the  same  time,  so  closely  allied 
are  mind  and  body,  that  bodily  languor  involves  moral  lan- 
guor, and  a  deep  experience  of  disappointment  unnerves  body 
as  well  as  mind,  so  that  this  poetical  form  brings  into  the  scope 
of  the  experience  all  those  cases,  where  the  sickness  of  the 
body  aids  to  bring  down  the  mind  to  the  dust.  It  is,  then, 
in  the  consciousness,  perhaps,  of  a  bodily  unnerving  from 
moral  languor  that  he  says,  "my  soul,  or  life,  cleaveth  to 
the  dust."  Terrible  is  loss  of  heart.  In  the  ancient  fables 
it  is  iold  that,  when  Prometheus  made  men,  the  demigods 
wondered  not  so  much  at  their  wonderful  construction,  as 
that  he  could  induce  them  to  live  and  act.  He  said  that  he 
effected  this  by  placing  blind  hopes  in  their  hearts.  The 
hopes  of  the  servant  of  God  are  not  "blind,"  but  founded 


200  ^electeD  psalms  anD  ©onograpljs 

upon  immutable  promises;  yet,  nevertheless,  they  may  be 
clouded  to  that  extent,  that  not  only  is  he  overwhelmed  in 
misery,  but  his  activity  is  paralyzed.  This  is  the  case  of 
the  psalmist  here,  and  he  here  desires  a  recovery  of  his 
moral  energy  through  the  granting  of  some  desired  thing. 
This  is  indicated  by  the  expression,  "according  to  thy  word." 
And  the  application  to  the  case  of  ordinary  Christians  can 
best  be  made  by  considering  the  case  of  the  probable  writer 
of  this  psalm.  The  word  of  promise  to  Solomon  was  that 
he  should  sit  on  the  throne  of  Israel.  At  times  it  must  have 
seemed  impossible  that  this  promise  should  be  fulfilled,  and 
then  faith  and  energy  would  alike  fail.  Now,  it  is  in  such 
a  strait  that  he  claims  encouragement  in  fulfilment  of  the 
promise.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  claims  the  throne 
at  once,  but  merely  the  removal  of  discouragements,  the 
granting  of  something  that  would  give  encouragement,  that 
would  tend  to  further  or  at  least  smooth  the  way  to  his  ad- 
vancement— little  success  that  would  serve  to  make  him  feel 
that  God  is  watching  over  him  and  keeping  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promise  ever  in  veiw.  The  child  of  God  has  promised 
to  him  a  greater  throne  than  the  throne  of  Israel  and  the 
way  to  it  is  long  and  so  great  are  the  discouragements  that 
sometimes  his  faith  well  nigh  fails,  and  he  cries  out,  "my 
soul  cleaveth  to  the  dust."  God  does  not  insist  that  he 
should  overcome  his  discouragements  by  the  bare  exercise  of 
faith.  He  does  not  say,  "If  you  will  believe  as  you  ought, 
you  will  be  again  full  of  energy,"  but  permits  His  child  to 
pray,  "quicken  me  according  to  Thy  word."  Not  that  he 
claims  the  great  promise  in  its  last  fulfilment,  not  that  he 
claims  to  be  at  once  transported  into  the  promised  land;  but 
demands  support  by  the  way,  some  little  encouragement  to 
faith — "a  cluster  from  Canaan."  This  will  not  enforce  be- 
lief in  the  unfaithful,  for  not  all  believed  who  saw  the 
Eshcol  grapes;  but  will  strengthen  the  faith  that  exists,  weak 
though  it  be.  And  it  is  to  be  noted  that  this  special  help  is 
asked  as  involved  in  the  general  promise,  and  may  be  claimed 


Eeli*  jFreOerick  £a  Eue  ifttng     201 

on  the  basis  of  it,  when  the  heart  grows  faint  and  "ready  to 
halt."  And  in  nothing,  does  God  show  more  ten- 
derness and  compassion,  than  in  just  this  thing.  The  dis- 
couragement that  overwhelms  us  may  be  really  contemptible. 
We  may  really  deserve  a  scourging  for  not  rising  above  it. 
Lack  of  common  force  of  character  and  courage  may  be 
at  the  bottom  of  our  trouble;  our  fellows  may  make  short 
work  of  our  nervous  fancies,  hardly  tolerant  of  them,  even 
in  the  sick;  but  our  Heavenly  Father  breaks  not  the  bruised 
reed  nor  quenches  the  smoking  flax.  There  is  no  contempt 
with  Him,  but  He,  according  to  His  infinite  knowledge, 
ministers  in  the  infinite  variety  of  infinite  love  to  every  case. 
They  who  are  permitted  to  base,  upon  a  great  promise,  pe- 
titions for  little  things  in  the  way  towards  its  realization  and 
to  ask  for  them  now,  ought  to  be  as  wide  and  as  special  in 
the  interpreting  of  God's  commands,  showing  the  same  sensi- 
tive delicacy  towards  God  that  He  is  ready  to  show  towards 
them.  If  what  they  ask  for  their  encouragement  were  nec- 
essarily involved  in  the  promise,  even  then  there  would  be 
mercy  and  grace  in  God's  granting  it ;  but  just  as  likely  as  not 
it  is  not  involved  in  the  promise,  is  perhaps  an  unnecessary 
and  even  hindering  thing,  or  if  not  that,  now  is  not  the 
proper  time  for  it.  If  He  were  dealing  with  creatures  infinite- 
ly wise,  He  would  deal  very  differently  with  us;  but  He  is 
dealing  with  foolish  and  ignorant  creatures,  who  like  children, 
are  not  contented  that  they  are  guarded  in  the  path  that 
will  lead  to  a  pleasant  place,  but  will  have  the  danger  hid 
from  their  eyes,  and  will  have  a  flowery  path  to  tread.  And 
the  Lord  bends  his  infinite  plans  to  minister  to  human  folly 
and  makes  even  the  distant  howling  of  the  wolves  to  cease 
in  the  pasture,  where  His  flock  lie  down.  This  petition, 
then,  is  not  based  logically  upon  the  promise,  but  rather  upon 
the  heart  of  God  as  revealed  by  the  promise.  For  He  that 
would  have  us  happy,  at  the  end  of  all  must  certainly  desire 
that  we  should  be  happy  every  step  of  our  way,  and  if  we 
cry  to  Him  will  contrive  to  have  it  so. 


202  Selected  paalms  ana  Q&onogcapks 

Verse  26.  "My  ways  have  I  recounted,  and  Thou 
hast  answered  me;  teach  me  Thy  statutes." 

The  word  translated,  "ways"  here  has  in  the  Hebrew, 
most  of  the  significations  of  our  English  word  "way."  It 
is  more  than  simply  "path,"  it  is  not  a  path,  which  may  or 
may  not  be  used,  a  path  becomes  a  way  only  as  it  is  used 
as  a  means  to  the  reaching  of  a  certain  point  e.  g.  "this  path 
is  the  way  to  the  spring."  This  spoken  of  a  man  "his  way," 
does  not  mean  simply  what  he  does  as  a  means  for  the  at- 
tainment of  certain  objects  he  has  in  view — the  methods  he 
adopts  in  the  pursuit  of  his  aims,  and  the  man's  way  is  good 
or  bad  not  so  much  with  the  reference  to  the  moral  character 
of  his  actions,  as  to  the  likelihood  of  their  bringing  him  to  a 
happy  result. 

In  this  verse,  the  expression  "my  ways,"  might,  con- 
sidered by  itself,  mean  "my  habits  of  action" — "my  ordinary 
actions" — "my  conduct."  But  that  it  means  something 
more  than  this  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  recounting  of 
them,  amounts  to  a  petition,  for  it  is  said  in  the  last  clause, 
that  God  answers  him.  A  paraphrase  will  most  easily  set 
forth  the  right  meaning.  "I  have  laid  before  the  Lord  the 
attempts  and  undertakings  with  which  my  life  has  been  oc- 
cupied— the  various  ways  in  which  I  have  striven  to  attain 
my  purposes.  I  have  brought  to  Him  all  my  failures  as 
to  One  who  can  remedy  all,  and  not  only  acknowledging  my 
ill  success,  but  also  the  sinfulness  mingled  with  all  these 
"ways,"  begged  Him  by  the  very  act,  to  take  the  matter 
in  hand  and  do  for  me  what  I  ineffectually  tried  to  do  for 
myself."  And  then  comes  the  request  "teach  me  Thy  stat- 
utes." The  word  translated,  statutes  is  peculiarly  appropri- 
ate here;  it  might  be  translated  "orders";  it  signifies  the  ex- 
pression of  the  will  of  God  as  arbitrary  and  irreversible,  with- 
out any  regard  to  its  character  in  other  respects.  The  psalm- 
ist had  in  time  past  been  fond  of  having  his  own  way,  and 
that  had  brought  him  to  the  humiliating  recital  of  his  "way," 
for  that  is  the  way  of  failure  now  he  gives  his  own  will  up 


Eeth  jFceDerick  JLa  I&ue  ding     203 

and  submits  himself  to  God's  orders — "statutes."  "Teach," 
that  is,  "permit  no  neglect  or  blindness  of  mind  to  hide  Thy 
statutes  from  me,  when  they  are  explicit  in  the  Scriptures; 
help  me  to  deduce  them,  when  they  are  implicit;  enable  me 
to  recognize  and  acknowledge  them,  when  they  come  to  me 
by  the  mouth  of  men  or  circumstances."  We  can  easily 
imagine  the  young  Solomon  to  have  been  unable  to  keep 
himself  in  the  attitude  of  waiting  and  to  have  tried  to  help 
himself  forward  by  aiming  at  prominence  and  repute  and 
popularity.  He  may  have  also  attempted  to  do  something  to 
thwart  the  designs  of  his  enemies.  Such  efforts  would  be 
embarrassed  by  his  conscientious  regard  for  God's  law.  It 
would  be  very  like  trying  to  walk  with  shackled  limbs. 
Schiller  notices  the  additional  energy  that  want  of  principle 
gives  a  man.  Many  men  have  made  failures  where  they 
could  easily  have  been  successful,  if  they  had  only  been 
unscrupulous.  We  can  easily  imagine  that  Solomon  was 
inconceivably  puzzled,  seeing  clearly  what  would  be  effective, 
but  not  being  able  to  find  out  what  would  be  at  once  effect- 
ive and  right.  Notwithstanding  all  his  ability,  he  may  well 
have  made  many  mortifying  failures;  and  besides,  his  very 
successes  dishearten  him.  The  burden  of  taking  his  own 
welfare  into  his  own  hands  is  too  much  for  him,  seeing  that 
he  is  hampered  by  moral  considerations,  and  he  comes  to 
God  for  orders.  What  a  relief!  The  aching  will  rests  upon 
God's  will;  there  passes  into  the  soul  a  sense  of  safety,  free- 
dom from  temptation,  a  feeling  that  success  is  probable,  and 
that  whether  success  is  ours  or  not,  we  at  least  have  God, 
for  obedience  to  God  is  clinging  to  God,  and  possession  of 
God.  There  is  in  coming  to  God  for  orders,  a  satisfaction 
all  the  greater  that  we  do  not  obey,  because  we  understand 
the  significancy  or  reason  of  those  orders,  but  simply  from 
simple  personal  devotion,  which  implies  a  close  communion 
and  inspires  the  assured  confidence  that  we  are  pleasing  him. 
Christians  have  often  need  to  make  the  kind  of  petition  re- 
ferred to  in  this  verse — to  bring  their  failures  and  their  un- 


204  Selected  psalmg  ana  Q§onograpi)$ 

finished  work  to  God  for  success  and  completion.  When  a 
Christian  man  once  realizes  that  he  is  acting  from  himself, 
that  his  "ways"  are  his  own,  then  it  becomes  him  to  recount 
them  to  God  and  have  a  new  spirit  put  into  them,  a  spirit 
which  while  it  is  one  of  energy  is  yet  one  of  dependence;  for 
this  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  God  answers  us — a  new 
spirit  put  into  our  work  is  a  new  efficiency.  Sometimes  there 
is  a  grant  of  earthly  wisdom,  sometimes  we  are  directed  to  a 
change  of  work;  and  sometimes  are  made  to  stand  still  and 
have  God  work  for  us.  Even  where  our  work  is  prosperous 
we  should  in  this  way  lay  it  down  before  God  in  order  that 
it  may  be  assured,  feeling  insecure  as  long  as  it  is  our  own. 
A  spirit  of  submission  to  God's  orders,  a  feeling  that  we 
need  God's  orders  cannot  be  too  sedulously  cultivated  by 
the  Christian.  Even  confidence  in  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  often  leads  to  dependence  upon  one's  self  and 
wilfulness — the  Christian  living  from  grace  received,  rather 
than  drawing  at  once  upon  the  source  of  all  grace.  Obstin- 
acy and  wilfulness  are  often  seen  in  the  Christian,  but  if 
he  receives  God's  orders  humbly,  he,  by  that,  enters  into 
the  possession  of  what  is  the  rightful  basis  of  all  authority 
and  energy. 

Verse  27.  "The  way  of  Thy  precepts  make  me  un- 
derstand, and  I  will  muse  of  Thy  wonders." 

Taking  the  word  "way,"  in  the  active  sense,  the  first 
clause  would  mean  "make  me  to  understand  that  thy  pre- 
cepts are  a  way  to  the  attainment  of  whatever,  by  'my  ways,' 
(verse  26)  I  have  attempted."  "Precepts" — the  law  as 
assigned  work.  "Make  me  to  understand  how,  if  I  do  the 
work  that  you  set  me,  I  shall  be  doing  my  own."  The  pru- 
dential interested  views  of  a  man,  whose  natural  tendency  is 
to  look  to  the  main  chance  is  manifested  here,  and  is  pre- 
dominant in  the  psalm.  It  is  one  proof  that  Solomon  wrote 
this  psalm,  so  like  is  the  spirit  of  the  psalm  to  his  character. 
Of  course,  this  prudential  interest  is  of  a  high  and  broad 
character;  not  the  highest  and  noblest  type  of  God's  ser- 


Eetn  jFreDerick  La  Hue  ifting     205 

vice;  not  like  David's  attitude  toward  God,  but  still  tending 
to  bring  a  man  onward  and  upward,  like  one,  who  on  a 
lower  declivity  of  a  great  mountain  is  yet  moving  towards 
the  top.  Still  it  involves  peril,  not  utterly  to  devote  ones  self 
in  love  to  the  Lord.  This,  Solomon  found  in  the  latter 
years  of  his  life.  An  acute  mind,  serving  God  from  con- 
siderations of  duty  and  looking  to  His  commandments,  rather 
than  to  Him,  is  in  danger  of  explaining  away  commands, 
and  reconciling  the  most  diverse  practices  when  temptation 
furnishes  an  inducement  to  do  so.  The  spirit  with  which 
these  words  are  uttered  may  be  set  forth  thus,  in  a  paraphrase 
of  the  text:  "Make  me  to  understand,  that  in  letting  myself 
be  absorbed  in  the  work  Thou  settest  me  to  do,  I  am  on 
the  way  to  the  realization  of  my  wishes,  and  then  I  will  oc- 
cupy myself  with  the  realization  of  those  desires  only  so 
far  as  to  encourage  myself  by  meditating  upon  Thy  won- 
drous works  in  times  past,  where  I  see,  first,  Thy  power  and 
will  to  help  Thy  servants;  second,  how,  in  spite  of  their 
occupation  with  the  work  Thou  settest  them,  to  the  neglect 
apparently  of  their  own  interest,  they  yet  came  out  success- 
ful, nay  where  third,  I  see  how,  when  that  which  Thou  set- 
test  them  to  do  by  word  (as  Abraham)  or  by  promise  (as 
Joseph)  in  a  human  sense,  also  precluded  (see  also  Daniel) 
the  realization  of  the  very  promises,  still  Thou  didst  make  it 
a  wonderful  way,  by  means  of  which  to  attain  the  very  sum- 
mit, and  higher  than  the  summit  of  their  desire.  Thus  the 
two  clauses  are  in  perfect  correlation.  To  Solomon  and  to 
the  servant  of  God  now,  this  absorbtion  in  divinely  assigned 
work,  while  at  the  same  time,  contemplating  the  wonders  of 
the  Lord  is  a  mode  of  prayer,  that  would  carry  light  into 
many  a  darkened  path.  How  many  have  to  crush  out 
their  tastes,  how  many  have  to  deny  themselves  congenial 
society  or  books  or  study,  simply  because  their  duties  come 
in  the  way.  God  assigned  the  duties,  God  also  implanted 
the  dates — one  ought  to  be  done,  the  other  ought  to  be 
gratified.     Bury  yourself  in  your  duties,  no  matter  what  you 


206  ^elcctcD  psalms  anD  e^onogtapfjs 

cast  away;  but  it  is  also  your  duty  to  meditate  upon  the 
wonders  of  God.  You  may  be  absorbed  in  the  thought 
of  them  and  yet  not  neglect  your  work,  nay  the  very  thought 
of  them  will  set  you  free  to  work,  and  make  you  take  an 
interest  in  your  work;  for  you  will  be  helped  thereby  to  trust 
that  out  of  the  eater  will  come  forth  meat,  and  as  in  time 
past  God's  providences  were  births  which  could  not  be  fore- 
seen, so  it  will  be  with  you;  when  the  Lord  turns  your  cap- 
tivity you  will  be  "like  to  those  that  dream." 

Verse  28.  "My  soul  weeps  from  sorrows;  raise  me  up 
according  to  Thy  word." 

Raise  me  up  seems  to  be  correlative  with  the  expression 
weeps.  A  person  weeping,  naturally  bends  over  and  hides 
his  face.  To  raise  such  an  one  up,  implies  that  his  weeping 
was  put  an  end  to,  by  the  removal  of  its  cause.  In  this  verse 
the  promise  gets  a  still  broader  and  more  liberal  interpretation 
than  in  the  25  th  verse.  There,  the  psalmist  prays  that  his 
energy  may  be  restored,  here,  that  his  heart  may  be  cheered ; 
in  both  cases  the  petition  is  based  on  the  promise.  Now  the 
promise  could  be  exactly  fulfilled  upon  its  final  realization 
alone.  But,  as  man's  activity  is  always  implied,  so  we  can 
claim,  on  the  part  of  God,  as  part  of  that  promise,  all  that 
is  necessary  to  secure  our  activity,  always  saving  this — it  is 
sometimes  best  that  God  should  act  and  not  we.  Sometimes 
He  ties  our  hands  or  fetters,  our  spirit,  in  order  that  what 
we  aim  at,  may  be  better  done  than  we  could  do  it  ourselves. 
So  likewise  the  servant  of  God  can  pray  to  be  granted  that 
which  will  comfort  his  heart  and  fill  him  with  joy  on  the 
way.  This  must  be  true,  since  the  promise  of  God  is  an 
expression  of  His  good  will  towards  the  recipient  of  the  prom- 
ise, and  therefore,  any  needless  delay  in  the  execution  is  in- 
consistent with  it,  and  any  needless  suffering  permitted  is  still 
more  inconsistent  with  it.  We  may  infer,  that  He  who 
promises  a  time  of  joy  to  us  at  the  end  through  the  constraint 
of  that  very  nature  that  gives  the  promise,  desires  and  implies 
that  He  would  give  us  that  same  or  like  joy  all  along  the  way. 


I&eto*  jFteDerick  La  Eue  ifting     207 

Let  this,  however,  be  remembered;  if  the  servant  claims  pres- 
ent comfort  as  in  accordance  with  the  promise,  so  let  him  by 
this  very  sanction  to  his  petition,  "according  to  Thy  word," 
cast  away  all  comfort  and  joy  that  is  inconsistent  with  it. 
There  is  some  joy  that  we  must  fail  of,  if  we  would  have 
the  greater  and  final  joy.  Afflictions  have  their  need  and 
that  very  often.  Is  it  going  too  far  to  say  that  the  cleaving 
to  the  dust,  spoken  of  in  verse  25,  is  a  cleaving  of  stupidity 
and  sensuality  and  worldliness  destroying  energy,  and  that 
sometimes  sorrow,  though  prayed  against,  "according  to 
Thy  word,"  is  retained,  that  the  soul  may  be  brought  to  lay 
hold  of  the  promise  and  thus  its  energy  restored  "according  to 
Thy  word."  Then  the  soul,  though  still  bowed  down  and 
weeping,  is  nevertheless  out  of  the  dust  and  acting  and  pray- 
ing still,  against  its  sorrow,  "according  to  Thy  word,"  may 
look  forward  to  a  time  of  the  lifting  up  of  the  head. 

Verse  29.  "The  way  of  falsehood  remove  from  me, 
and  Thy  law,  grant  unto  me  graciously." 

Right  before  the  psalmist  stretches  a  way  that  offers 
to  him  deliverance  and  prosperity.  But  he  knows  that  it  is  a 
lie,  "a  way  of  falsehood."  He  knows  that  it  will  not  lead 
whither  it  pretends  to.  Still,  it  has  some  alluring  power;  a 
temptation  ever  before  the  eyes  may  be  too  strong  for  the 
strongest,  and  he  asks  not  that  he  may  be  strengthened  to 
resist,  but  that  the  temptation  may  be  removed.  This  peti- 
tion might  be  answered  by  the  actual  removal  of  the  external 
temptations  to  a  wrong  course;  or  God  might,  while  allowing 
the  external  occasion  for  the  temptation  to  remain,  grant  such 
understanding  of  this  false  way,  by  having  reports  from  those 
who  have  tried  it,  by  having  the  tempting  men  or  circum- 
stances unmasked,  as  should  lake  from  it  the  power  to  tempt. 
Or  the  psalmist  might,  (and  this  is  indicated  in  the  latter 
clause)  have  God's  way  of  salvation,  so  thrust  upon  his 
attention  and  illuminated,  that  it  shall  appear  a  better  and 
more  alluring  way.  This  is  what  is  specially  prayed  for — 
deliverance  from   evil  temptation  by  having  the  soul  tempted 


208  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpjjs 

by  God's  proposals.  "Grant  me  Thy  law  graciously."  That 
broad  cult  and  mode  of  approaching  God  laid  down  by 
the  Mosaic  Institutions.  The  law  that  "restores  the  soul" 
(see  19  Psalm),  the  broad  symbolic  setting  forth 
of  God's  grace,  this  law  which  we  are  so  apt  to  have  in  form, 
while  failing  of  its  power,  the  psalmist  asks  to  possess  more 
thoroughly,  to  understand  more  completely  and  to  be  sur- 
rounded with  all  its  glorious  privileges  and  ministry  crying 
"How  amiable  are  Thy  Tabernacles,  O,  God  of  Hosts," 
God  is  asked  to  grant  this  graciously,  since  the  way  of  false- 
hood does  not  long  present  itself  to  a  man  without  his  tam- 
pering with  it  in  all  likelihood,  and  in  asking  for  its  removal, 
he  cannot  but  feel  that  he  does  not  deserve  to  have  it  done. 
Also,  in  view  of  the  many  perils  besetting  the  way  of  false- 
hood, it  is  an  act  of  grace  on  God's  part  to  remove  it.  Also 
it  is  a  gracious  act  to  grant  the  law  in  view  of  the  law's 
character.  "The  way  of  falsehood"  that  offered  itself  to  the 
youthful  Solomon,  was  very  likely  some  short  cut  to  the 
kingly  throne.  Just  as  our  Saviour  was  offered  by  the 
Devil,  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  so  doubtless,  to  the  royal 
youth,  was  often  offered  by  the  Father  of  Lies,  the  throne  of 
Israel  upon  certain  conditions,  which,  at  times,  seemed  tempt- 
ing. What  these  conditions  were  we  do  not  know,  but  from 
the  latter  petition  we  may  perhaps  be  justified  in  supposing 
that  he  might  have  been  tempted,  through  his  self  interest  at 
the  beginning  of  his  career,  with  the  very  same  temptation, 
that  through  his  unconsciousness,  availed  to  overthrow  him 
at  its  close.  The  administration  was  Judaic  and  Jerusalemic 
and  there  may  have  been  a  suggestion  to  Solomon's  mind, 
that  an  apposition,  founded  on  tribal  righte,  both  governmen- 
tal and  sacerdotal,  might  make  him  popularity  and  power. 
Such  a  temptation,  if  entertained  for  a  moment,  would  be  so 
far  forth,  and  for  so  long  a  departure  from  the  law  in  the 
thoughts  of  his  heart.  And  quick  as  a  flash  must  have  come 
the  consciousness  that  any  falling  back  from  David's  work 
involved  a  falling  back  from  the  work  of  Moses;  that  if  he 


l&eto*  jFreOeuck  La  Eue  ifting     209 

gave  up  Jerusalem  he  must  be  content  with  only  high-place 
worship  and  lose  all  the  gracious  verdation  of  the  Wilderness 
and  Tabernacle.  This  must  have  made  him  feel  that  that 
way  was  a  way  of  falsehood  and  led  him  back  with  an  in- 
creased sense  of  the  law's  value,  crying  in  the  dread  of  de- 
served loss  "grant  me  Thy  law  graciously."  A  Christian  is 
only  safe  in  living  on  the  highest  plane.  If  he  has  opened  to 
him  the  privilege  of  being  a  son  of  God,  let  him  accept  it 
with  all  its  God-like  self  abnegation.  Let  him  not  try  to  give 
up  any  of  his  high  position  in  order  to  enjoy  any  of  the 
pleasures  of  sin.  Above  all  let  him  not  encourage  others  in 
living  on  a  lower  plane  that  he  may  yet  gain  by  pleasing 
them.  We  should  exact  of  ourselves  strictly  in  this  matter. 
Much  might  be  permitted  to  David  that  cannot  be  tolerated 
in  our  clearer  light.  Let  us  not  be  willing  to  stand  on  David's 
plane  of  knowledge  and  consciousness  in  order  to  have  what 
to  David  was  permitted.  For  that  we  know  we  must 
realize  in  heart  and  life  at  our  peril.  Going  back  from  the 
perfect  cult  and  metropolitan  rule,  established  by  David,  in- 
volved the  giving  up  of  more  than  that.  If  one  goes  back 
towards  heathenism,  why  not  go  all  the  way.  If  a  Christian 
is  content  to  remain  where  he  is  or  tries  to  go  further  back, 
in  order  that  he  may  be  in  a  position  that  will  require  less 
of  him,  and  where  he  may  live  more  of  the  mere  natural  life 
than  he  could  in  going  further  towards  God,  then  he  adopts 
a  line  of  motion  in  which  there  is  no  stopping  place  and 
which  will  lead  him  further  and  further  away  from  God. 
We  ought  to  live  at  high-water-mark  of  grace,  if  we  would 
live  safely.  "Forward"  should  be  our  word;  "Forward  to 
the  highest  and  holiest  of  all."  Grant  me  Thy  law  graciously. 
The  cult  that  Solomon  prized  was  splendid  and  gracious,  but 
we  have  one  more  splendid  and  gracious  still — the  Temple 
of  God  in  Heaven  and  the  Great  High  Priest  and  the  in- 
numerable company  of  angels.  Over  against  the  way  of 
falsehood  we  must  set  the  open  door,  the  gracious  promise, 
the  near  access,  the  exalted  dignity  and  the  large  reward. 


210  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onogcap&s 

Verse  30.  "The  way  of  truth  have  I  chosen;  Thy 
judgments  have  I  set  (before  me)." 

"The  way  of  truth" — the  true  way — the  way  which 
leads  whither  it  professes  to  lead,  "have  chosen"  i.  e.  have 
permanently  chosen,  do  choose,  will  hereafter  choose. 

The  false  way  is  false,  not  only  because  it  is  in  itself 
not  calculated  to  bring  to  happiness,  him  who  treads  it,  but 
also  because  God's  judgments  overhang  it.  The  "way  of 
truth"  is  true,  not  only  because  it  is  in  itself  calculated  to 
promote  the  happiness  of  those  it  invited,  but  also  because 
it  avoids  God's  judgments,  and  this  is  the  peculiar  view  taken 
of  it  here.  The  motive  here,  to  the  choice  of  the  true  path, 
is  not  that  to  which  it  will  lead,  but  that  which  it  will  avoid. 
This  is  in  striking  harmony  with  the  general  tone  of  religious 
prudence,  which  rules  this  psalm;  and  that  this  has  rightly 
a  place  in  the  experience  of  the  servant  of  God  is  very  mani- 
fest, from  the  very  fact  that  God's  people  have  had  to  be  so 
often  warned  and  threatened.  Even  St.  Paul  acknowledges 
that  this  fear  has  influence  upon  him,  and  is  a  motive  to  his 
work.  "Lest  I,  who  have  preached  the  Gospel  to  others, 
should  be  myself  a  castaway."  This  declaration  is  the 
complement  of  the  petition  in  the  preceding  verse.  It  will  be 
but  naught  for  us  to  ask  that  the  way  of  falsehood  be  re- 
moved, if  we  do  not  choose  the  way  of  truth.  If  the  way 
of  falsehood  was  the  opportunity  offered  to  him  of  using 
wrong  means  to  advance  himself,  then  the  choosing  of  the 
way  of  truth  implies  the  embracing  of  the  right  opportunities 
of  advancing  himself,  consistent  with  quiet  waiting  God's 
time.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  time  of  youth 
was  occupied  by  Solomon  with  such  exercises  and  studies  as 
helped  to  make  him  the  king  he  was.  If  he  had  given  way 
to  the  temptation  of  vain  and  unholy  endeavor,  he  would 
not  have  made  the  brilliant  monarch  he  did.  He  had  in  his 
time  of  enforced  inactivity,  an  excellent  opportunity  to  study 
the  nation  in  its  parties.  Men  would  unveil  themselves  with- 
out reserve  before  and  towards  the  little  and  despised  prince, 


mem  jFreDerick  La  Kue  fting     211 

and  he  would  come  to  the  throne  as  rich  in  experience, 
almost,  as  if  he  had  governed  all  this  time.  The  judgments 
that  Solomon  set  before  himself  as  warnings,  might  have 
been  God's  general  judgments  against  sin.  The  judgments 
against  Saul  and  his  house  would  be  nearer  and  more  suited 
to  his  case.  But  the  judgment  against  Absalom  would  be 
of  specific  application.  He  was  taught  by  these  judgments 
that  the  throne  was  the  Lord's,  and  that  the  sub-royalty  of 
Israel  was  in  His  gift  and  that  he  was  not  to  lay  hands  upon 
it  himself.  The  child  of  God  now  has  need  to  learn  this 
lesson.  He  may,  as  Solomon  was,  be  little  and  despised. 
He  may  feel  that  his  opportunities  for  usefulness  are  limited; 
that,  if  he  had  more  wealth,  social  position  or  official  posi- 
tion or  whatever  makes  power  for  a  man,  he  then  would 
be  able  to  do  more  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  But  let  him 
beware,  self-seeking  sometimes  takes  this  form.  It  may  be 
only  repining,  when  he  is  laid  by  helpless  by  sickness;  it  may 
be  the  neglecting  of  duties  that  imprison  the  faculties  and  tie 
up  the  powers  and  even  appear  to  destroy  them.  It  may 
take  the  form  of  desiring  popularity,  and  seeking  it  by  over 
eager  and  questionable  means,  and  even  by  unholy  intrigues. 
This  is  all  the  way  of  falsehood.  He  must  reject,  for  there 
is  danger  in  the  path  and  the  mode  of  rejection  is  the  choice 
of  the  "way  of  truth."  He  must  make  the  most  of  his  time 
in  the  position  and  circumstances  that  God  has  chosen  for 
him,  no  matter  how  unlikely  it  may  appear  that  they  will 
bear  fruit  for  the  kingdom.  Special  and  peculiar  opportuni- 
ties may  be  found  in  any  peculiar  set  of  circumstances,  and  if 
used  aright,  they  will  promote  not  only  our  growth  in  grace, 
but  our  efficiency  as  servants  of  God.  God  never  cuts 
blocks  with  razors;  but  it  requires  great  faith  not  to  believe 
it.  This  whole  life  is  but  a  waiting  time,  like  that  of  Solo- 
mon. The  throne  will  come  bye  and  bye,  and  we  will  be 
sorry  enough  if  we  are  not  ready  for  it. 

Verse  31.     "I  have  cleaved  unto  Thy  testimonies,  oh, 
Jehovah,  put  me  not  to  shame." 


212  Selected  psalms  and  e@onojjrapf)g 

The  word  "cleave"  means,  adhere — stick-to,  as  in 
verse  25,  but  is  followed  by  a  different  preposition.  There 
the  word  is  followed  by  the  preposition  "to"  indicating  a 
mere  outside  adherence  as  of  lint  to  a  rough  surface.  Here 
"cleave"  is  followed  by  the  preposition  "in,"  indicating 
an  internal  adherence  or  sympathy.  This  latter  form  of  ex- 
pression is  used  in  Hebrew  where  a  strong  feeling  attracts 
towards  another  e.  g.  "Ruth  clave  unto  her"  (in  her).  In 
verse  25  then,  we  have  some  part  of  the  psalmist — some 
precious  part  designated  as  his  soul,  described  as  brought 
down  into  the  dust  and  made  to  adhere  to  it;  while  at  the 
same  time  the  man  himself  loathing  his  position,  cries  out 
for  deliverance.  Here,  verse  3 1 ,  we  have  the  man  himself 
freely  giving  himself  up  to  that  which  at  the  same  time  at- 
tracts him  so  strongly  that  the  word  well  describes  him  as 
carried  away  by  and  sticking  to  it.  These  two  kinds  of 
cleaving  are  then  dissimilar,  the  one  is  voluntary,  the  other 
involuntary  and  yet  there  is  a  likeness  between  them.  A 
man  who,  of  his  own  accord  mounts  a  horse's  back  is,  while 
he  remains  there,  as  entirely  in  the  power  of  his  horse's  mo- 
tions, as  if  he  had  been  placed  there  and  tied  fast.  So  one 
who  steps  into  a  boat  of  his  own  accord,  must  be  carried 
with  the  motion  of  the  boat  as  long  as  he  remains  in  it,  as 
irresistibly  as  if  he  had  been  forced  into  it  and  made  to  re- 
main. We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  original  sense  of  the 
word  cleave — to  stick  fast  to.  In  English  the  word  "stick" 
is  used  only  of  intense  resolve,  e.  g.,  the  cry  of  encourage- 
ment, "stick  to  him."  But  the  Hebrew  expression  means 
more  than  simple  resolve,  however  intense,  something  of 
involuntary  emotion,  that  perforce  carries  a  man  away  and 
which  the  volition  merely  gives  expression  to,  is  intimated. 
For  instance,  in  the  expression,  Ruth  clave  to  her,  while 
there  is  volition,  there  is  also  a  strong  emotion  that  carries 
Ruth  away  and  fastens  her  to  Naomi,  so  different  from 
mere  resolve  as  to  be  analogous  to  the  adhering  of  one  body 
to   another.      This  strong   expression   then   of   the   Psalmist 


EefcK  jFreDetick  La  IRue  ifting     213 

manifests  the  intensity  of  his  choice,  its  unreservedness,  and 
the  utter  subserviency  to  the  testimonies  of  God  implied  in 
and  following  from  it.  It  is  as  if  he  gave  himself  up  to 
the  sway  of  that  which  from  henceforth  had  him  completely 
in  its  power.  This  supreme  dominance  of  the  Law  of  God 
over  the  man  is  necessary  to  a  real  and  truthful  relation  with 
it.  The  law  of  God  is  intolerant  of  any  other  allegiance, 
and  until  the  servant  of  God  can  say,  "I  have  cleaved  to 
Thy  testimonies"  he  may  well  suspect  his  loyalty.  But  he 
must  not  let  this  adherence  to  the  testimonies  of  God  ter- 
minate in  a  mere  mental  act,  if  true  active  obedience  will 
flow  from  it;  indeed  it  may  be  said  that  an  act  of  obedi- 
ence is  the  necessary  basis  for  the  mental  choice.  As  a 
mental  act,  we  may  accept  the  law  and  resolve  to  obey  it, 
may  resolve  to  cleave  to  it;  but  the  actual  cleaving  to  God's 
testimonies  is  in  the  act  of  obeying  them  from  the  heart. 
They  who  try  as  a  preliminary  to  active  obedience,  to 
devote  themselves  to  God's  law  by  an  inner  act  of  the  soul 
often  find  it  unsatisfactory,  for  the  mind  reacts  against  itself. 
God  made  the  mind  not  to  act  alone,  but  through  the  body, 
with  reference  to  the  external  world,  and  all  difficulties 
would  vanish,  and  they  who  are  sticking  fast  in  the  slough 
of  self-consciousness  would  be  free,  if  letting  their  mental 
processes  alone  they  would  fix  their  attention  upon  what 
is  to  be  done  and  do  it.  Then  would  the  soul  truly 
cleave  to  God's  testimonies  and  every  succeeding  act  would 
make  the  dominance  of  the  law  more  complete.  But  we 
must  go  farther  than  this,  and  say  that  not  only  is  an  act 
required,  but  the  act  must  be  towards  God;  it  is  in  vain 
to  try  any  mere  dealing  with  the  law,  any  care  in  obeying 
the  external  precept,  to  attain  to  this  utter  subjection  of  the 
soul  to  God's  testimonies — the  moral  precepts  are  the  very 
soul  of  the  law;  they  command  the  assent  of  the  natural 
reason  and  conscience,  they  attract  the  loftier  part  of  man, 
but  that  strong  feeling  which  is  necessary  to  bear  a  man 
away  and  fasten  him  to  the  law  forever,  is  attraction  to- 


214  Selected  p$alm$  attD  ^onograpljs 

wards  God.  We  must  deal  at  first  hand  with  Him.  There 
cannot  be  devotion  to  the  law  without  devotion  to  the  law 
giver.  He  that  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  cannot  cleave 
to  any  statement  of  God's  will  because  for  cleaving  there 
must  be  loving,  therefore  the  testimony  to  God's  moral 
character  must  be  adhered  to  in  all  its  forms  and  through- 
out the  Bible.  The  command  marks,  interpreted  by  the 
Spirit,  become  very  broad  and  multitudinous,  reaching  to 
the  thoughts  and  intent  of  the  heart  and  placing  the  ser- 
vant of  God  en  rapport  with  Him  who  is  the  infinite  source 
of  the  command.  If  we  were  interpreting  this  clause  alone, 
there  is  no  height  of  loyal  love  which  we  could  not  con- 
ceive it  to  imply.  But  here  comes  in  the  second  clause,  not 
to  trim  down  the  luxuriancy  of  the  emotion,  but  still  to 
introduce  a  little  regard  to  self-interests.  Reading  the  two 
together  the  verse  is  equivalent  to  this,  "Put  me  not  to  shame 
in  my  cleaving  to  Thy  testimonies."  There  is  a  depth  in 
the  Psalmist's  feeling  that  would  doubtless  impel  him  to 
cleave  to  God's  testimonies  no  matter  what  the  result  might 
be,  but  the  feeling  does  not  carry  him  away  to  that  degree 
that  he  forgets  all  about  consequences.  He  is  very  regard- 
ful of  them.  This  is  a  prudent  man.  He  has  invested  in 
God's  testimonies  and  is  evidently  understood  by  those 
around  to  have  risked  his  all  upon  his  adherence  to  them. 
And  this  does  not  derogate  in  the  least  from  the  nobleness 
of  the  feeling  that  impels  him.  It  is,  perhaps,  on  a  lower 
plane  than  David  who  would  forget  both  law  and  conse- 
quences in  thinking  about  God.  But  still  this  is  the  ex- 
pression of  true  and  acceptable  service.  The  truth  is,  many 
feelings  unite  in  an  impulse  to  obey  God;  a  sense  of  his 
rightful  authority,  of  his  dread  power,  of  the  utter  folly  of 
disobedience,  and  as  here,  hopes  beckoning  forward  to  the 
attainment  of  one's  aim,  a  feeling  of  covenant  claim,  all 
unite  with  love  of  the  law  giver  to  impel  the  servant  to 
utter  devotion.  This  would  all  the  more  easily  take  place, 
if,  as  in  the  case  of  young  Solomon,  the  thing  which  self 


J&eto*  jFre&erick  La  Eue  ifting     2t5 

interest  demands  were  promised  by  God  and  to  be  viewed 
as  but  further  and  higher  employment  in  His  service. 

Verse  32.  "The  way  of  Thy  commandments  will  I 
run,  for  Thou  wilt  enlarge  my  heart." 

"The  way  of  Thy  commandments"  is  the  way  marked 
out  by  God's  commandments,  which  are  the  law,  considered 
in  its  directive  capacity.  Now  a  way  exists  not  for  itself,  it 
is  merely  a  means  of  reaching  a  place,  of  attaining  an  end. 
Now  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word  "way,"  the  com- 
mandments point  out  the  way  to  God.  They  are  a  means 
by  which  God's  servant  is  united  at  last  to  God  Himself — 
the  real  aim  of  all  His  children.  But  the  child  of  God  can- 
not make  personal  communion  with  God  his  sole  aim.  He 
is  on  the  Earth  and  of  the  Earth,  and  earthly  things  must 
be  the  objects  of  intense  interest  and  eager  pursuit  or  not 
only  would  the  work  that  God  has  appointed  to  be  done 
here  remain  undone;  but  the  proper  and  natural  avenues  of 
approach  to  God  through  the  things  that  He  has  made, 
would  be  neglected  and  men  would  surfer  spiritual  loss. 
The  child  of  God  may  and  must  make  his  aim,  health, 
wealth,  happiness,  prosperity,  power.  All  these  may  not 
only  be  good  for  him  personally,  but  they  may  be  made  the 
means  of  something  higher  and  better  if  they  are  subordi- 
nate to  that  higher  and  better  aim.  Just  as  the  words  of  a 
sentence  would  be  subordinate  to  the  sense  of  the 
sentence,  just  as  the  notes  of  a  piece  of  music 
should  be  subordinate,  to  the  strain,  just  as  the 
parts  of  a  building  should  be  subordinate  to  its  purpose,  so 
should  all  the  aims  of  God's  servant  centre  in  one  aim,  in 
all  his  seekings  he  should  seek  God.  The  position  of  young 
Solomon  illustrates  both  the  possibility  and  the  difficulty 
of  this.  The  hope  that  was  set  before  him  might  well  be 
called  a  glorious  hope,  for  it  was  a  call  to  more  magnificent 
service  for  God  than  had  ever  fallen  to  the  lot  of  mortal  be- 
fore. Every  step  towards  the  position  of  King  of  Israel 
might  well  be  a  step  towards  God.     But  that  exalted  posi- 


216  ©elected  psalms  and  ^onograpfjs 

tion  was  also  an  opportunity  to  serve  himself — to  gratify  his 
taste  for  splendor,  his  desire  for  authority,  his  capacity  for 
ruling;  it  was  a  mine  of  earthly  pleasure  for  him  to  work. 
The  word  of  promise  then  brought  him  into  the  scope  of  a 
temptation,  and  he  was  in  danger  of  falling  away  from  the 
search  after  God  while  seeking  what  He  had  promised.     If 
he  desired  the  kingdom  in  order  that  he  might  gratify  self, 
then  he  must  of  needs  wait  with  impatience,  and  the  temp- 
tation to  seize  "suddenly  and  unholily"  the  throne,  would 
have  nothing  to  break  its   force  save   the  consideration  of 
personal  peril.     But  on  the  other  hand  waiting  patiently  as 
one  waits  for  an  opportunity  to  serve,  he  has  already  the 
service  that  he  seeks  and  would  depart  from  it  by  yielding 
to  the  evil  solicitation.     The  Lord's  way  with  him  becomes 
his  way.      The   guiding  way-marks   of  the  commandments 
chafe  not  his  will,  for  his  heart  is  enlarged  by  the  Lord. 
Petty  aims  have  vanished.  He  will  have  only  the  greatest  and 
the  best,  and  is  able  in  the  least  to  see  the  greatest,  in  the 
parts  to  see  the  whole,  in  the  petty  details  of  his  preparatory 
training,  in  the  alarming  adversities,  delays  and  denials,  he 
realizes  the  promise.      He  need  not  wait  for  the  summer, 
his  bushes  bear  roses  in  the  winter.     His  heart  is  so  enlarged 
to  perfect  sympathy  with  the  holiness  of  the  command,  to 
entire  trust  in  God's  faithfulness,  in  wisdom,  that  he  is  sure 
that  not  a  step  marked  out  by  the  command  is  a  step  lost, 
to  the  magnificent  feeling  that  he  is  serving  in  the  highest 
sense  possible  in  conforming  to  God's  denial  of  service  that 
he  bounds  along  in  his  path,  however  tortuous  it  may  ap- 
pear, assured  that  it  is  a  true  way,   the  true  way  for  the 
attainment  of  his  aim.     This  is  the  only  way  for  the  child 
of  God  to  be  diligent  in  business,  fervent  in  Spirit,  serving 
the  Lord.     If  the  heart  is  only  enlarged  the  commandments 
solve  the  problem.      The  secular  becomes  sacred  and  the 
sacred  secular,  and  the  Christian's  life  is  one.     He  has  in- 
tense earthly  desires,  but  has  a  desire   (a  hierarchy  of  de- 
sire) that  swallows  these  up.     So  he  rests  not  in  any  earthly 


Eeti*  jFreDerick  &a  l&ue  ifting     2X7 

aim  even  the  highest,  but  at  all  times  and  in  all  things  feels 
after  God.  The  astronomer  intensely  desires  a  telescope, 
but  that  desire  is  swallowed  up  in  the  desire  of  the  sky, 
and  he  only  arrives  at  the  perfect  possession  of  the  telescope 
when  he  forgets  it  in  his  gaze  through  it  upon  the  stars.  So 
one  whose  heart  God  has  enlarged  finds  in  the  commands 
that  restrain  the  worldling,  his  largest  liberty,  the  worldling's 
ends  become  his  means,  toys  turn  in  his  hands  to  tools,  and 
all  the  details  of  life  precious  as  the  parts  of  a  wondrous 
song  which  rests  not  in  any  note,  now  hastens  to  its  cadence 
but  is  perfectly  beautiful  only  when  according  to  the  law 
of  the  strain  it  is  passing  to  its  perfect  close.  This  is  Chris- 
ian  waiting. 

"The  men  of  grace  have  found 
Glory  begun  below." 

HE. 

Verse  33.  "Guide  me  Jehovah,  in  the  way  of  Thy 
statutes  and  I  will  keep  it  (to  the)  end." 

In  the  preceding  verse  we  have  the  Psalmist  looking 
to  the  commandments  for  direction  and  in  his  present  state 
of  mind  he  chafes  at  their  restrictions,  trusting  confidently 
that  God  will,  by  enlarging  his  heart,  bring  him  into  har- 
mony with  them.  Here  the  application  is  made  directly  to 
God  Himself  for  guidance.  "O!  Jehovah!  guide  me."  In 
verse  33  God  is  looked  to  that  repugnance  to  the  directions 
of  His  commandments  may  be  overcome  by  an  inner  change. 
Here  the  psalmist  would  put  himself  under  God's  personal 
direction  in  order  to  secure  perseverance  in  the  way.  There 
is  considerable  difference  between  looking  to  God's  com- 
mandments for  direction  with  a  heart  enlarged  by  God's 
spirit,  and  applying  directly  to  God  for  guidance.  Either 
would  secure  our  safe  arrival  at  the  Heavenly  Home;  but 
the  first  implies  a  more  active  exercise  of  the  faculties,  a 
certain  degree  of  independence.  Our  minds  lighted  up  by 
the  large  heart  must  be  all  alive  to  scrutinize,  interpret  and 


218  ©elected  p$alm$  and  ^onograpftsi 

follow  out  the  directions  given  in  the  commandments.  But 
there  are  those  Christians  who  crave  and  there  are  times 
when  all  Christians  crave  to  be  led  like  little  children. 
Weariness,  discouragement  and  self-distrust  sometimes  leave 
us  nothing  as  a  basis  of  hope  in  our  future  good  conduct, 
but  a  child-like  trust  in  God's  guidance.  The  word 
"guide,"  the  address  "O  Jehovah,"  both  indicate  this  di- 
rect, personal  appeal,  the  "statutes"  that  is,  "arbitrary  com- 
mands"— "orders"  of  God,  is  just  what  the  tired  and 
daunted  soul  demands  to  make  its  obedience  full  of  rest. 
No  impulse  is  asked,  for  the  soul  earnestly  desires  to  do 
right;  it  is  in  the  right  way,  but  it  fears  lest  it  should  not 
per:evere;noj-  instruction  does  it  ask,  for  that  involves  the 
labor  of  thought;  it  wants  "orders"  and  it  asks  to  be  guided 
in  obeying  these.  One  would  think  that  if  one  had  the 
statute  there  would  be  no  need  of  guidance  since  if  one 
desired  to  obey,  he  could  literally  obey.  But  there  are 
many  of  God's  orders  which  yet  require  the  exercise  of 
judgment  in  their  application.  For  instance,  Christ's  com- 
mand to  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow.  That  is  a  stat- 
ute— an  arbitrary  command;  it  does  not  appeal  to  the  moral 
sense  or  to  human  wisdom.  So,  also,  of  other  directions,  not 
to  go  to  law,  to  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  the  obedience 
must  not  be  slavish;  the  statutes  cannot  be  followed  out 
with  lazy  literalness.  They  constitute  no  mathematical  rule, 
and  even  where  the  soul  is  not  under  the  stress  of  a  glazing 
temptation,  that  makes  the  command  appear  other  than  it 
is — even  "in  the  quietness  of  thought"  it  is  difficult  to  see 
what  is  duty.  Besides,  the  enactments  of  God  cannot  cov- 
er all  special  cases,  the  law  would  be  so  voluminous  as  to 
be  impossible  for  us  to  use.  We  cannot  keep  the  law  by 
keeping  the  typical  action  enjoined  or  forbidden,  we  must 
expand  the  statute,  and  this  requires  the  exertion  of  both 
art  and  will,  and  needs  to  be  guided.  Besides  this,  to  keep 
the  "way  of  the  statutes"  is  something  more  than  to  keep 
the  statutes.      The  ceremonial  enactments,  which  are  in  a 


Eetn  jFreDerick  £a  IRue  i&ing     219 

great  measure  arbitrary,  could  be  perfectly  kept  as  statutes 
and  yet  without  heart  and  without  faith.  They  might  be 
to  the  Jew  only  the  path  in  which  God  has  ordained  that 
he  should  tread.  But  a  way  is  more  than  a  path.  The 
way  of  God's  statutes  is  the  path  marked  out  by  God's 
statutes  as  used  by  the  Child  of  God  in  order  to  attain  an 
end  other  and  higher  than  the  statutes  themselves.  Thus  a 
man  might  go  up  to  the  temple  at  the  appointed  times 
and  discharge  all  the  appointed  dues,  walking  like  Zacha- 
riah  and  Elizabeth  in  all  the  statutes  and  ordinances  of  the 
Lord,  blameless,  yet  without  a  higher  purpose  than  merely 
to  obey  God's  command.  He  walks  in  the  way,  but  does 
not  make  it  his  way.  He  makes  the  statute  a  way,  when 
he  approaches  the  temple  and  uses  the  rites  to  rid  him- 
self of  a  sense  of  guilt  and  to  recover  God's  favor  again, 
to  be  filled  with  all  hope  for  this  life  and  that  to  come. 
Not  without  significance  is  the  omission  of  the  preposition 
"in."  It  is  not  "guide  me  in  the  way,  but  guide  me  the 
way."  Guide  me  by  way  of  Thy  statutes.  "Guide  me 
in  the  following  out  of  my  purposes  so  that  I  may  follow 
them  out  in  the  line  of  and  by  means  of  Thy  statutes." 
The  state  of  mind  of  the  Psalmist  seems  to  be  this.  He 
desires  to  be  spiritual,  craves,  as  some  minds  do,  special 
and  minute  cultus,  and  though  on  the  right  path  and  with 
a  prevailing  purpose  to  follow  it  to  the  end,  yet  fears  the 
force  of  temptations  to  turn  him  aside  in  momentary  de- 
flections which  may  become  permanent  ones.  He  asks  for 
guidance,  that  God  by  providential  arrangement  of  circum- 
stances should  incline  his  heart  to  constant  obedience,  and, 
if  necessary,  hedge  his  way  up,  guiding  him  as  a  horse 
with  a  rein,  if  it  must  be.  This  is  not  the  way  of  the 
strong  man  in  Christ,  it  is  the  way  of  weak  and  tired  ones, 
who  walked  not  as  they  would,  strong  in  the  Lord,  but  like 
humble  sheep  look  to  their  shepherd's  steps  and  are  thank- 
ful for  his  rod  and  crook. 

"I  will  keep  it  to  the  end."     This  is  uttered, 


220  Selected  psalms  anD  aionograpljs 

First,  with  a  sense  of  the  natural  helplessness  of  the 
Psalmist.  Looking  forward  to  the  long  path  before  him, 
he  feels  that  the  only  ground  of  hope  is  God's  guidance. 
"I  will  keep  it,"  is  simply  future.  Granted  God's  guidance 
to  the  end,  perseverance  to  the  end  will  follow. 

Second,  it  may  be  understood  in  a  covenant  sense, 
and  as  a  resolve.  "Guide  thou  me  for  Thy  part,  and  I  will 
for  my  part  keep  the  path  to  the  end,  or  more  than  that, 
will  be  to  the  end  pressing  forward  in  the  path  towards  the 
end,"  for  when  the  path  becomes  a  way  to  a  man,  it  is 
more  than  an  ending,  an  aim.  But  this  covenant  resolve  is 
based  on  the  hope  manifested  by  the  simple  future.  On 
the  God  who  performs  His  part  is  based  all  power  to  per- 
form ours.  The  value  of  the  covenant  idea  is  this.  If  we 
exert  ourselves  to  do  our  part,  then  we  bind  God  as  it  were 
to  do  His — to  do  what  is  necessary  to  be  done  in  order  that 
we  may  do  our  part.  This  paradox  is  involved  in  every 
act  of  faith.     So  that  the  covenant  resolve  is  very  like  the 

Third  sense,  simple  resolution  in  reliance  on  the  Lord. 
Guide  thou  me  and  then  in  that  strength  I  will  do  not  one 
action,  but  all  the  long  series  of  actions  issuing  in  the  great 
end. 

Verse  34.  "Make  me  understand  (it)  and  I  will 
keep  Thy  law,  and  will  observe  it  with  a  whole  heart." 

The  word  law  signifies  the  whole  Mosaic  Cult — the 
law  of  God  not  as  arbitrarily  laid  down,  (statutes),  not  as 
guiding  (commandments),  not  as  assigning  duty  (precepts) 
not  as  appealing  to  the  moral  consciousness  (testimonies), 
or  to  the  sense  of  dread  (judgments),  but  as  suited  to  the 
needs  of  His  people;  soothing  their  fears,  arousing  their 
hopes  and  drawing  out  their  affections — restoring  the  soul. 
This  is  perhaps,  vague;  it  might  mean  understand  any  or 
everything;  the  next  clause,  however,  limits  it  as  is  usual 
in  this  psalm.  Alexander  understands  law  after  under- 
stand; this  is  perhaps,  too  definite  to  be  poetical.  The  want 
of  regimen  is  part  of  the  poetical  form.  A  man  may  under- 


Eel),  iFreDettck  La  Hue  ifting     221 

stand  the  law  and  yet  may  not  have 
the  understanding  that  will  secure  his  keeping  of  the 
law.  The  understanding  asked  for  here  is  full  understand- 
ing, all  the  knowledge  that  tends  to  put  a  man  in  due  rela- 
tion to  the  law:  knowledge  of  God's  purpose  in  giving  it, 
knowledge  of  one's  need  of  it,  the  need  that  others  have 
of  it,  skill  in  the  law,  experimental  knowledge  of  its  power 
to  restore  the  soul.  It  should  not  be  kept  as  a  mere  arbi- 
trary statute  after  which  the  heart  does  not  go,  but  from 
the  heart,  as  it  manifests  the  loving  heart  and  large  purpose 
of  God.  Just  as  the  "testimonies"  appeal  to  the  moral 
sense,  and  to  be  kept  properly  should  be  appreciated  by 
the  conscience  and  obeyed  according  to  the  principle  lying 
beneath  each,  so  the  law  should  be  kept  as  remedy,  as 
promise,  as  a  present  revelation  of  God.  Then  the  splen- 
did structure,  the  awful  manifestation,  the  magnificent  cere- 
monial, the  significant  rite,  fully  understood,  would  secure  its 
own  obedience,  and  with  the  whole  heart  it  would  be  ob- 
served. Such  an  understanding  as  would  make  obedience 
attractive  is  asked  for  and  confidence  expressed  that  it  alone 
would  secure  perseverance.  We  have  no  law  in  the  sense 
of  cult.  We  are  free  of  the  Mosaic  law,  and  yet  have  been 
made  free  only  in  order  that  we  may  in  the  Spirit  build  forth 
from  a  consciousness  of  our  needs  and  our  aesthetic  and 
social  powers  a  new  and  perfect  cult.  If  we  would  only 
ask  to  be  made  to  understand  the  old  law  of  the  Jews  as  it 
is  asked  here,  and  also  to  understand  the  various  cults  of 
the  churches  about  us;  instead  of  keeping  blindly  and  ob- 
stinately as  a  statute  of  God  our  own  cult  despising  or  hat- 
ing that  of  others,  if  we  would  come  to  God's  house  with 
hearts  full  and  eager  to  meet  the  Lord;  then  would  our 
forms  of  worship  transform  themselves  towards  the  perfect 
cult,  and  we  would  keep  the  law  in  the  sense  that  it  is  to 
be  kept  by  us,  and  all  its  details  would  be  full  of  pregnant 
suggestion  to  the  Ecclesiologists  of  the  future.  In  this  last 
point  of  view  we  see  that  the  want  of  regimen  in  "under- 
stand" helps  to  the  larger  meaning. 


222  Selected  psalms  and  eponogtapJjs 

Verse  35.  "Make  me  tread  in  the  path  of  Thy  com- 
mandments, for  in  it  do  I  delight." 

The  commandments  of  God,  prescribing  a  certain 
course  of  action,  mark  out  a  path.  This  path  used  as  a 
means  of  attaining  one's  end  becomes  a  way,  and  an  ex- 
cellent way  it  is,  direct,  smooth  and  safe.  But  the  com- 
mandments prescribe  a  course  of  action  pleasant  in  itself 
considered,  made  so  by  the  consciousness  that  we  are  obey- 
ing Him  whom  we  ought  to  obey  and  love;  and  also  by 
the  fact  that  what  we  are  directed  to  do  is  consonant  with 
our  better  nature,  and  tends,  besides,  to  throw  around  us 
agreeable  circumstances  by  reason  of  the  effects  produced 
on  others. 

"Flowers  laugh  before  Thee  in  their  beds 
And  fragrance  in  Thy  footing  treads," 

— Wordsworth's  Ode  to  duty. 
Considered  merely  as  a  path,  without  reference  to  its  leading 
any  whither  it  is  pleasant.  Both  the  word  "tread"  and  the 
etymology  of  the  word  translated  path,  indicating  the  origin 
of  a  path  by  trampling  show  that  the  view,  is  limited  here 
to  the  track  marked  out  by  the  commandments.  In  this 
track  the  child  of  God  desires  to  be  made  to  walk,  and 
petitions  God  for  more  forceful  influences  than  are  asked  for 
in  verse  33.  In  the  word  "guide"  some  choice  or  impulse 
to  the  right  is  presupposed;  here,  in  distrust  of  one's  impulses 
and  powers,  an  appeal  is  made  to  God,  that  He  would 
bring  us  into  the  right  path,  and  secure  our  continuance 
therein  by  the  use  of  means  that  are  independent  of  our 
choice.  This  may  be  done  in  many  ways,  for  the  resources 
of  God  are  infinite;  by  hedging  up  the  way,  by  losses,  be- 
reavements, by  chastisements,  by  Judgments.  Christians  can, 
in  looking  back  upon  their  past  lives,  see  how  their  general 
purpose  in  life  has  been  guided  in  its  details  unto  something 
different  from  that  they  intended.  They  may  often  also  no- 
tice   that    God    sometimes,    by    some    sudden    providence 


nzto.  jFreOerick  La  l&ue  mm     223 

changed  their  purpose,  took  away  their  relish  for  worldly 
things,  and  even  earthly  things,  and  made  them  come  into 
the  right  path.  This  petition  may  be  asked  by  one  who  is 
treading  with  delight  the  path  of  the  commandments,  and 
who  looks  to  God  to  secure  his  continuance  therein.  But 
it  is  mainly  and  properly  the  petition  of  one  who  is  out  of 
the  way  and,  remembering  his  former  delight  in  it,  desires 
to  be  set  back  therein  again.  It  might  be  asked  what  more 
would  be  needed  to  impel  one  to  enter  the  path  of  the 
commandments  again  than  the  knowledge  that  so  doing 
would  bring  delight.  But  there  is  a  natural  sluggishness  to 
be  overcome.  We  are  not  always  willing  to  pay  the  price 
of  exertion  for  that  which  we  know  will  please  us  when 
gained;  and  then,  though  reason  and  remembrance  both  as- 
sures that  the  course  marked  out  by  God  will  bring  pleasure, 
still  it  does  not  seem  so  to  us.  The  delight  of  the  path  is 
a  higher,  different  kind  of  delight  from  that  which  is  present 
and  powerful  out  of  the  path;  we  feel  that  we  would  have 
to  be  different  beings  to  enjoy  the  path.  Reason  may  tell 
one  steeped  in  coarse  pleasures,  that  refined,  cultured  people 
enjoy  more,  and  yet,  being  what  he  is,  the  sty  pleases  him 
best.  The  first  steps  towards  the  path  may  be  painful, 
something  of  force  is  necessary  on  God's  part  to  propel  us 
forward.  I  may  be  perfectly  convinced  that  the  extraction 
of  a  tooth  might  bring  me  ease,  and  yet  might  need  some- 
thing to  compel  me  to  have  it  out.  So  I  might  be  con- 
vinced from  past  experience  that  if  I  were  only  living  on  a 
higher  plane,  I  would  take  delight  in  that  life,  but  I  am 
living  on  a  lower  plane,  and  its  impulses  so  sway  me  that  I 
need  some  impulse  extra  to  push  me  forward  out  of  it.  It 
is  but  tempting  God  to  pray  this  prayer  if  we  do  not  strive 
at  all.  If  we  go  on  to  enjoy  to  the  utmost  the  coarse  en- 
joyments of  the  lower  plane  till  we  are  driven  by  main 
force  to  the  higher.  Indeed  we  cannot  earnestly  ask  to  be 
made  to  walk  in  the  right  path  without  some  effort  to  give  up 
the  wrong. 


224  Selected  psalms  ano  ^ottograp&s 

Verse  36.  "Incline  my  heart  unto  Thy  testimonies, 
and  not  to  gain." 

The  word  "incline"  is  remarkable  as  being  the  strong- 
est expression  yet  of  the  soul's  dependence  upon  God  for 
its  motions  towards  good.  The  only  expression  like  it  is 
"enlarge  my  heart"  in  verse  32.  Nothing  could  mark  the 
age  of  the  psalm  more  definitely  than  this  does.  It  must 
have  been  at  the  end  of  a  long  national  religious  experience, 
by  which  the  soul  is  forced  upon  a  knowledge  of  itself,  that 
this  petition  was  uttered.  "Heart"  here  means,  not  merely 
the  seat  of  the  affections,  but  the  propulsive  centre,  the  seat 
of  cravings,  desires,  demands.  The  exact  sense  in  which 
it  is  used  here  is  seen  by  the  next  clause,  which  written  out 
fully  would  be  "and  do  not  incline  my  heart  to  gain" — 
cause  me  not  to  crave  gain.  Gain  is  desired  for  its  own  sake, 
and  the  petition  is  that  we  may  be  inclined  to  crave  moral 
purity  for  its  own  sake,  for  our  own  satisfaction  independent 
of  any  reward.  From  the  correlation  of  the  clauses  it  would 
appear  that  the  petition  is  at  bottom  this,  "may  I  not  be 
inclined  to  prefer  gain  to  Thy  testimonies."  Now  as  this 
is  a  sinful  preference,  God  cannot  be  conceived  as  directly 
inducing  it  upon  the  soul,  or  He  would  be  the  author  of  the 
sin;  we  are  bound  not  to  take  the  word  "incline"  in  the 
sense  of  direct  working  upon  the  mind  to  change  its  states. 
The  petition  then  would  be  very  like  the  last  petition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  "lead  us  not  into  temptation."  Place  me  in 
such  circumstances,  deal  with  me  in  such  a  way  as  shall  in- 
cline me  to  prefer  Thy  testimonies  to  any  gain.  This  peti- 
tion we  must  not  understand  to  be  uttered  as  a  general  peti- 
tion, but,  in  view  of  some  special  temptation  to  prefer  gain, 
or  worldly  advantage  of  any  kind,  to  the  testimonies  of  God. 
In  the  case  of  him  whom  we  suppose  to  be  the  author  of  this 
psalm,  there  was  no  lack  of  temptation  of  this  kind.  In  a 
thousand  ways  he  could  gain  influence  and  present  power, 
and  increase  the  prospect  of  his  succession  to  the  throne. 
We  see  how  Absalom  used  his  opportunities,  and  Solomon 


l&eto*  jFre&etick  JLa  Eue  Mm     225 

was  a  far  shrewder  man.  Here  in  the  presence  of  some 
opportunity  to  get  advancement  at  the  expense  of  his  con- 
science; he  prays  that  he  may  be  inclined  to  hold  fast  to 
God's  testimonies,  not  because  he  thereby  acquired  a  claim 
on  God  for  deliverance  from  evils  as  at  verse  22,  or  for 
prosperity,  as  at  verse  3 1 ,  or  because  it  was  shrewder  to 
adhere  to  God's  testimonies  as  at  verse  24,  for  none  of  these 
he  prays,  but  that  he  might  be  made  to  feel  that  his  true 
gain  was  holiness,  and  in  holiness  to  rest  satisfied.  Incline 
my  heart  unto  Thy  testimonies  as  unto  gain. 

This  petition  commends  itself  to  the  child  of  God  in 
all  ages.  O,  that  we  might  be  tempted  by  the  testimony! 
Then  would  temptation  be  abolished. 

Verse  37.  "Turn  away  my  eyes  from  seeing  false- 
hoods; in  Thy  ways  quicken  me." 

In  verse  29  the  psalmist  asks  that  the  false  and  tempt- 
ing way  may  be  removed  from  before  him.  There  the  false 
thing  remaining,  he  asks  that  God  would  turn  his  eyes  away 
from  it.  The  word  for  falsehood  is  different  in  significance 
from  that  used  in  verse  29.  That  signifies  something  that 
appears  what  it  is  not,  this  signifies  what  appears  to  be 
something,  but  is  really  nothing.  There  is  thus  a  peculiar 
fitness  in  the  use  of  the  Hebrew  word  in  verse  29,  in  con- 
nection with  the  word  "way,"  a  way  is  nothing  in  itself,  its 
importance  consists  in  what  it  leads  to.  The  false  way  is  a 
way  that  leads  to  something,  but  to  what  is  very  different 
from  its  promise.  Here  the  temptation  which  the  false  thing 
presents  is  not  in  what  it  promises,  but  in  itself — what  it  ap- 
pears to  be.  Wicked  aims  and  pursuits  considered  on  the 
side  of  their  worthlessness  and  emptiness,  shams  of  all  kinds 
so  often  attractive  and  despotic,  are  indicated  here.  Alexan- 
der regards  the  word  translated  in  our  version  "vanity"  to 
indicate  false  objects  of  religious  worhsip,  but  this  use  of  the 
word  is  rare.  And  besides,  not  to  say  that  better  sense  is 
made  by  the  meaning  "nothingness"  or  "emptiness,  '  we  can 
hardly  conceive  a  man  of  the  stable  and  contemplative  piety 


226  Selected  psalms  anO  ^ottograp&s 

of  the  psalmist  having  any  strong  temptation  to  worship  other 
gods.  In  the  case  of  the  young  Solomon  it  is  still  more 
unlikely,  pious  and  devoted  as  we  know  him  to  have  been, 
depending  for  all  his  earthly  support  upon  the  theocratic 
party  in  Israel.  If  we  will  compare  further  with  verse  29, 
we  shall  see  there  a  greater  passivity  of  soul.  There,  there 
is  no  hope  of  resisting  the  temptation,  and  the  petition  is  that 
the  temptation  may  be  removed — it  is  asked  that  the  object 
that  allures  to  evil  may  be  taken  away  and  another  substi- 
tuted, one  that  presenting  the  true  way  may  obliterate  the 
false  one.  Here  there  is  more  energy.  The  man  that  says 
"turn  away  my  eyes  from  the  temptation"  instead  of  "take 
it  away"  contemplates  deliverance  through  activity  of  his 
own.  No  change  of  objects  or  circumstances  does  he  desire, 
but  asks  that  his  wrong  activity  may  be  taken  away;  by  his 
being  stimulated  to  a  right  course  of  action.  "Turn  away 
my  eyes  from  seeing  vanity,  by  making  me  live  in  Thy 
ways."  The  ways  of  God  would  mean,  first  His  customary 
acts  (Ps.  103:  7;  Is.  25:9  and  Ex.  33  ),  then  his  deal- 
ings with  men,  Is.  44:5.  From  this  the  transition  is  easy 
to  precepts,  either  direct  or  derived  from  his  example  (Ps. 
1  19:3)  or  from  knowledge  of  what  pleases  him.  So  the 
"ways  of  a  mistress"  which  a  good  servant  ought  to  learn 
may  be  either  the  directions  she  gives,  her  actions,  or  her 
wishes  and  tastes,  all  these  will  be  a  law  to  the  servant  who 
desires  truly  to  serve.  So  the  servant  of  the  Great  King 
strives  to  walk  in  "all  His  ways"  and  learn  them  from  word 
and  works,  precept  and  acts — the  law  is  in  the  truth,  the 
lawgiver  Himself.  "Make  me  to  live  in  Thy  ways"  would 
seem  to  mean,  "let  me  live  in  the  constant  experience  of 
Thy  dealings."  Make  the  empty  and  pretentious  shams 
that  now  tempt  me,  to  vanish  by  bringing  me  on  Thy  part 
within  the  scope  of  Thy  ways  of  mercy  and  love  and  in- 
clining me  to  "walk  in  those  ways"  by,  on  my  part,  doing 
according  to  those  ways  of  mercy  and  love,  keeping  in  them 
by  striving  to  do  nothing  that  would  cast  me  out  of  them. 


Betn  ^Frederick  &a  IRue  ifting     227 

and  seeking  to  conform  myself  to  all  the  ways  of  my  God, 
imitating  His  example  and  consulting  His  wishes  and  in- 
clination in  all  things.  There  is  in  this  verse  an  acknow- 
ledgement of  the  powerful  influence  of  the  temptation  even 
when  its  emptiness  is  known.  Who  asks  any  one  to  turn 
his  eyes  away  from  anything?  Our  eyes  are  under  our 
complete  command,  but  not  under  the  complete  command  of 
the  reason,  a  change  in  the  affections  and  desires  is 
needed  for  that.  This  verse  also  gives  a  glimpse  of  perhaps 
the  most  melancholy  condition  of  a  sinner  who  is  slave  to 
his  sin,  while  knowing  it  to  be  profitless;  in  this  condition  the 
psalmist  will  find  himself  if  God  does  not  help  him.  We  are 
taught  also  that  the  only  way  to  be  delivered  from  the  force 
of  a  temptation  is  not  to  contemplate  it — is  to  shut  our 
eyes  to  it  and  also  that  in  such  a  simple  act  as  turning  away 
one's  eyes  we  should  not  strive  in  our  own  strength,  but  do 
it  in  God.  We  may  learn  also  that  our  striving  should  be 
not  simply  to  avoid  the  seeing  of  any  evil  thing,  but  to  turn 
away  from  it  by  turning  to  another  and  better;  to  turn  away 
from  the  pursuit  of  shadows  and  the  consequent  gain  of 
nothing  to  the  pursuit  of  substance  and  the  gain  of  blessing. 

Verse  38.  "Make  good  to  Thy  servant  Thy  word 
which  (Thou  hast  spoken)  to  Thy  fearers." 

"Make  good  unto  Thy  servant  Thy  word  which  is 
for  Thy  fear."  "Thy  word"  means  Thy  promise,  it  cannot 
well  mean  anything  else,  and  yet  even  Alexander  makes  it 
the  promise  as  annexed  to  and  implied  in  the  commandment. 
It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the 
commandments.  This  interpretation  is  a  remarkable  instance 
of  the  power  of  a  theory.  Simply  because  an  old  commen- 
tator says,  that  the  law  is  alluded  to  in  nearly  every  verse 
it  seems  we  are  bound  to  make  it  so  by  force,  when  it  is 
manifest  that  there  are  many  verses  in  which  the  law  is  not 
alluded  to.  And  this  is  one  of  them.  Whether  the  first 
word  is  translated  "fulfil"  or  "confirm,"  it  cannot  well  refer 
to  anything  but  some  promise  that  God  has  made  to  His 


228  Selected  P$alm0  anD  ^onograpftf 

servant.  This  promise  is  said  to  be  calculated  to  promote 
God's  fear.  This  description  would  indicate  the  person  to 
whom  the  promise  was  made  to  be  a  distinguished  man,  one 
whose  experiences  of  God's  dealings  would  be  impressive 
in  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  And  it  strengthens 
the  probability  that  Solomon  was  the  author  of  this  psalm 
when  we  consider  that  the  very  making  of  the  promise  that 
assigned  him  to  the  throne,  was  peculiarly  "to  God's  fear." 
It  took  the  disposition  of  the  throne  out  of  the  hands  of 
people  and  king,  and  vindicated  for  the  Lord,  the  political 
headship  over  Israel.  The  fulfilling  of  the  promise  in  the 
baffling  of  so  many  intrigues,  the  overthrow  of  so  many 
splendid  aspirants,  and  above  all  in  the  elevation  of  one 
young  and  despised,  but  trusting  in  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
would  make  all  feel  that  God  was  worth  waiting  for  and 
looking  to.  And  more  than  this,  Solomon  well  knew  that 
not  for  himself  was  the  throne  promised  him;  it  was  that  he 
might  build  the  temple,  perfect  the  cult  of  Israel,  and  reign 
to  the  Glory  of  the  Lord.  Upon  this  ground  then — that  it 
would  promote  God's  fear — Solomon  bases  his  urgent  en- 
treaty that  God  would  soon  fulfil  His  word  of  promise.  But 
every  child  of  God  may  make  this  plea,  if  he  lives  mani- 
festly and  not  secretly  a  life  of  trust  and  service,  then  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  promises  in  his  person,  will  indeed  be  for 
God's  fear,  and  will  be  calculated  to  win  others  to  trust  and 
reverence,  and  in  his  degree  he  can  join  in  the  joyous  antici- 
pation of  the  Church  (Ps.  65:2),  "O,  Thou  that  hearest 
prayers,  to  Thee  shall  all  flesh  come."  And  even  though 
the  child  of  God  thinks  that  he  is  too  obscure  to  be  noticed, 
yet  he  may  feel  that  in  the  great  realization  of  all  promises 
his  blessed  state  shall  help  to  confirm  throughout  the  Universe 
the  honor  of  God's  name.  They  who  would  use  this 
glorious  argument  with  God,  must  see  to  it  that  they  so  live 
that  their  prosperity  will  tend  to  make  God  feared,  for  God's 
name  is  often  blasphemed  on  account  of  the  blessings  that 
are  granted  to  the  ungodly. 


Beth  jFre&euck  JLa  l&ue  Eing     229 

Verse  39.  "Turn  away  my  disgrace,  which  I  dread, 
for  Thy  judgments  (are)   good." 

From  the  fact  that  he  dreads  the  disgrace  it  would 
seem  not  yet  to  have  fallen  upon  him,  and  yet  it  is  called 
"my  disgrace";  this  would  imply  that  he  is  already  under 
this  reproach.  The  word  "turn  away,"  though  it  may  mean 
avert  more  naturally  signifies  "remove."  Perhaps  we  reach 
the  real  meaning,  as  is  so  often  the  case  in  Sacred  Scriptures, 
by  taking  both  meanings.  This  would  make  the  verse  ap- 
plicable not  only  to  the  case  of  one  who  only  dreads  dis- 
grace, but  also  to  the  case  of  one  who  suffers  under  it,  and 
is  the  fitting  petition  of  him  who,  enduring  present  contempt 
has  reason  to  apprehend  still  further  and  greater  dishonour. 
It  suits  well  the  young  Solomon,  little  and  despised  on  account 
of  his  great  pretensions  and  exposed  to  become  an  object 
of  yet  greater  derision  by  the  turn  of  events.  His  momen- 
tary lack  of  faith  in  his  final  success  may  find  expression  in 
terms  not  of  the  loss,  but  of  the  contempt  he  would  then 
experience.  But  it  may  be  that  Solomon,  without  doubting 
of  the  final  result,  still  prays  that  during  the  interval  of 
waiting  he  may  not  be  exposed  to  contempt  of  those  around 
him.  Taken  in  this  sense  the  petition  would  not  misbecome 
our  Blessed  Lord,  who,  though  He  could  not  doubt  of  the 
end,  still  suffered  keenly  under  the  contempt  and  reproach 
inseparable  from  His  humiliation.  It  well  befits  the  servant 
of  God  whether  in  a  moment  of  despondency  he  doubts  his 
final  triumph  or  suffers  keenly  under  the  reproach  that  is  so 
often  his.  The  word  translated  "disgrace"  is  very  strong, 
all  the  degrading  ideas  that  gather  round  the  word  "expos- 
ure" belong  to  it,  public  scorn,  unbounded  derision,  with  no 
defence  or  even  hiding  place.  The  second  clause  is  his 
plea  for  his  petition,  that  which  inspires  faith;  faith  pleads 
in  God's  presence.  The  psalmist  regards  the  ordinary  events 
of  his  life  as  an  expression  of  God's  judgment.  The  malice 
and  sneers  of  enemies,  the  losses,  privations,  as  also  all  com- 
forts and  joys  are  God's  judgments.     And  since  they  are, 


230  Selected  psalms  anD  ©onograpfjsi 

they  must  manifest  His  goodnesss.  He  has  reason  to  think 
what  impends  will  be  averted,  what  at  present  annoys,  will 
be  removed,  and  so  cries  out  to  God.  This  petition  may 
be  made  by  a  sinner  who  dreads  public  shame  on  account 
of  his  sins  which  he  richly  deserves.  Turning  to  the  Lord 
he  may  ask  for  pardon  and  favor,  a  remission  of  all  earthly 
penalties,  and  especially  this  one  of  public  disgrace.  God's 
acts  as  Judge  are  not  merely  inspired  by  Justice,  but  tem- 
pered with  mercy.  And,  indeed,  mercy  is  a  true  part  of 
judgment.  It  was  because  Joseph  was  a  just  man  that  he 
was  unwilling  to  put  Mary  to  an  open  shame  by  enforcing 
the  strict  penalties  of  the  law.  Samuel,  although  in  private 
he  sternly  denounced  to  Saul  the  rending  of  the  kingdom 
from  him,  still  regarded  (Sam.  1  5 :  30  and  31)  his  agon- 
ized entreaty  not  to  make  his  disgrace  public,  and  honored 
him  before  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  there  is  many  a  man  to 
whom  God  may  not  remit  the  earthly  penalty  for  his  sin, 
who  will  nevertheless  be  saved  from  shame  in  the  eyes  of  his 
fellows,  because  God's  judgments  are  as  truly  an  expression 
of  His  goodness  as  His  justice.  With  still  more  reason  may 
this  prayer  be  made  by  the  servant  of  God,  who  has  sinned 
or  made  an  unhappy  mistake,  and  with  how  much  greater 
confidence  may  the  servant  of  God  ask  to  be  delivered  from 
shame  and  derision  when  it  threatens  him,  because  he  does 
his  duty.  And  yet  this  petition  may  not  always  have  an 
earthly  answer.  There  is  such  a  thing  permitted,  as 
reproach  for  the  name  of  Christ  (1st  Peter  4:14).  Our 
Blessed  Master  had  His  last  sufferings  embittered  by  scoffing 
and  taunts,  and  followers  of  Him — benefactors  of  their  race, 
servants  of  the  Most  High — martyrs  of  Truth  or  civilization 
or  liberty,  have  gone  to  their  death  amid  derision  that 
covered  themselves  and  their  aims,  but  all  the  more  carefully 
will  God  see  to  it  that  for  their  shame  they  shall  have 
"double."  So  surely  also  shall  their  present  shame  minister 
to  their  future  honour  that  if  they  could  bear  the  marks  of 


Ifteto*  jfre&erick  La  Eue  Mm     231 

their  disgrace  upon  their  persons  forever,  it  would  be  for- 
ever to  them  a  crown  of  glory. 

Verse  40.  "Behold  I  long  for  Thy  precepts;  in  Thy 
righteousness  quicken   me." 

"Behold  I  long  for  Thy  precepts,  make  me  to  live  in 
Thy  righteousness."  The  word  translated,  "precepts"  sig- 
nifies the  law  as  enjoining  duties,  commissions,  the  law  in 
short  as  it  cuts  out  work  for  one.  The  expression  "behold" 
calls  special  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  does  long  for  them, 
and  either  presents  the  fact  as  an  appeal  for  pity,  or  as  a 
claim  upon  Jehovah  to  grant  him  His  precepts.  Here  it 
would  seem  to  constitute  a  claim.  This  probability  is 
strengthened  by  the  expression  "in  thy  righteousness."  The 
psalmist  says  in  substance,  "Since  I  am  Thy  servant  and  long 
to  have  my  work  appointed,  it  seems  no  more  than  a  right- 
eous thing  for  Thee  to  assign  to  me  my  work."  The  word 
"quicken"  would  then  indicate  what  he  asks  for.  If  he  is 
made  to  live  he  would  by  that  have  his  work  assigned.  And 
this  will  be  easy  to  understand  when  we  consider  that  the 
endowment  of  a  particular  form  of  life  does  of  itself  assign 
its  possessor  to  a  particular  work.  Let  God  only  grant 
the  gift  and  the  man  will  need  nothing  more  to  find  out  his 
work.  It  is  those  who  have  no  decided  gifts  and  tendencies, 
that  find  it  so  hard  to  know  what  God  requires  of  them  in 
the  way  of  work.  But  the  word  "behold"  in  the  first 
clause,  may  not  introduce  a  claim,  but  merely  call  attention 
to  a  petition,  which  the  second  clause  states  more  directly 
and  definitely.  "In  Thy  rghteousness"  would  not  mean 
through  Thy  righteous  acting  or  dealings,  and  so  "because 
Thou  art  righteous,"  but  rather  quicken  me  "into  Thy  right- 
eousness," quicken  so  that  I  may  act  righteously  as  Thou 
actest.  If  any  prayer  ought  to  be  made  in  faith,  surely  it  is 
this.  And  it  will  certainly  be  answered.  Let  any  one  long 
to  have  his  work  assigned  by  God,  and  God  is  bound  to 
grant  his  desires.  Whether  it  be  action  or  waiting,  it  will 
be  the  thing  that  will  most  serve  God  and  his  fellow-men. 


232  Selected  psalms  anO  O^onograpftf 

God  is  not  bound  to  make  it  clear  to  them  that  they  are 
doing  His  work,  that  is  the  burden  laid  upon  their  faith;  they 
may  think  themselves  woefully  misplaced,  and  chafe  their 
lives  long,  but  they  nevertheless  serve,  if  only  they  long  for 


VAV. 

Verse  41.  "And  let  Thy  mercies  come  (unto)  me, 
oh  Jehovah,  Thy  salvation  according  to  Thy  word." 

The  word  translated  "mercies"  properly  signifies 
"kindness,"  "favor"  without  any  necessary  implication  of 
ill-desert  as  is  inseparable  from  the  word  mercy.  Yet  God's 
kindness  to  such  as  we  are  implies  great  forbearance,  and 
it  is  not  therefore  without  reason  that  our  translators  have 
rendered  it  often  by  the  word  "mercy."  The  singular 
would  be  kindness  apart  from  its  exercise,  then  some  great 
act  of  kindness;  the  plural  many  acts  of  kindness,  therefore 
little  acts,  daily  ordinary  blessing.  The  use  of  the  plural 
indicates  that  the  idea  of  kindness  is  uppermost  here.  It 
is  equivalent  to  "acts  of  kindness"  and  implies  present  need. 
This  is  strengthened  by  the  use  of  the  word  "salvation"  in 
apposition.  These  are  delivering  mercies  that  he  asks  for. 
He  is  in  trouble  and  asks  for  those  dealings  of  God  towards 
him,  that  will  from  day  to  day  help  him.  And  these  favors 
of  God  are  asked  as  fulfilling  the  great  promise  of  salvation. 
In  the  case  of  the  young  Solomon,  the  great  promise  was 
the  promise  of  the  throne,  and  the  favors  or  kindnesses  asked 
are  such  partial  fulfilments  of  that  promise  as  he  needs  day 
by  day.  Thus  as  we  have  seen  before,  (verses  25  and  28) 
he  claims  of  God  not  only  the  final  realization  of  His  word, 
but  such  earnests  as  shall  (verse  25)  strengthen  and  quicken 
him,  and  (verse  28)  such  earnests  as  shall  encourage  and 
cheer,  and  here  such  earnests  as  shall  give  him  credit  in  the 
eyes  of  others,  such  as  shall  be  indications  that  he  is  to  be 
king.  This  is  seen  plainly  from  the  next  verse.  Solomon 
had  doubtless  the  comforts  of  a  palace.     But  like  the  child 


Eetn  jFreDerick  La  Eue  ming     233 

of  God  whose  eye  is  fixed  on  what  is  far  ahead,  he  counted 
the  present  possession  nothing  unless  it  was  a  means  and 
stepping  stone  to  the  future  glory.  What  the  special  kind- 
nesses were  that  he  desired,  we  cannot  tell.  But  it  doubt- 
less was  something  that  implied  public  recognition,  some 
recognition  by  the  king,  some  public  employment,  some- 
thing that  would  give  him  credit  with  influential  men,  some 
hampering  of  his  rivals,  something  that  would  show  that 
God  was  favoring  him  as  heir  apparent  and  would  not  allow 
him  to  drop  into  utter  obscurity.  If  we  may  judge  by  the 
position  in  which  Solomon  was  found  upon  the  occasion  of 
the  attempt  of  Adonijah,  this  petition  was  not  answered  in 
such  a  marked  way  as  perhaps  he  wished.  No  great  party 
was  formed  for  him,  no  prominent  position  assigned  to  him, 
no  great  power  intrusted  to  him.  And  yet  something  was 
undoubtedly  done  for  him,  not  only  to  encourage  his  hopes, 
but  to  keep  his  claims  alive  before  the  people.  This  we 
have  a  right  to  infer  from  the  response  of  universal  acclima- 
tion which  Jerusalem  gave  upon  the  occasion  of  his  first 
coronation.  God  would  not  utterly  neglect  such  a  prayer. 
Christians  should  in  imitation  of  this  prayer  avoid  separating 
the  present  mercies  that  they  desire  from  the  future  promised 
them.  Let  their  lives  be  so  consecrated  to  God,  that,  like 
a  perfect  work  of  art,  in  which  the  whole  is  manifested  in 
every  part,  their  daily  life  in  its  cravings  and  necessities  may 
be  a  striving  towards  that  great  final  aim,  and  then  they  can 
claim  blessings,  new  every  morning  and  renewed  every  eve- 
ning, on  the  ground  that  these  are  earnests,  and  may  be 
claimed  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  promise.  For  God 
will  not  let  us  wait  one  single  moment,  but  will  at  once,  as 
far  as  possible,  partially  fulfil  what  He  has  given  us  reason 
to  expect.  Not  only  precious  to  Him  is  the  hour  that  gives 
full  redemption  to  His  people,  but  also  the  hour  of  their  trial 
by  the  way.  He  tells  all  their  wanderings,  He  records  in 
His  book  their  every  tear.  This  petition  according  to  its 
context  is  very  suitable  for  the  Christian  who,  as  Solomon, 


234  ©elected  Psalms  and  ^onograpjjs 

striving  for  influence  and  power,  as  a  child  of  God  is  dis- 
credited in  his  claim  to  royalty.  He  who  strives  by  doc- 
trines or  institutions,  especially  novel  doctrines  and  institu- 
tions, to  do  good  to  his  fellows  must  often  be  weakened  in 
spirit  and  in  power  to  do  good  by  the  accusation  that  he 
is  making  a  false  claim,  that  he  has  no  right  to  be  heard, 
that  he  is  against  truth,  against  God.  It  would  apply  to  a 
lowly  preacher  of  the  Gospel  in  the  presence  of  hierarchical 
claims  that  disown  Him.  All  such  may  ask  and  are  en- 
couraged to  ask  for  God  to  set  His  seal  upon  them  by  such 
favors  and  successes  as  will  bear  witness  for  them  that  they 
are  making  rightful  claims.  And  let  not  the  thought  of  their 
imperfections  and  sins,  nor  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
around,  nor  their  great  lack  and  long  waiting  dishearten 
them.  God's  kindnesses  are  always  mercies  and  in  spite 
of  sins;  and  are  asked  of  One  who  is  able  to  save  in  spite 
of  all  danger,  and  who  is  faithful  to  all  His  promises. 

Verse  42.  "And  (then)  I  will  answer  my  reviler  a 
word;  for  I  trust  in  Thy  word." 

The  word  translated,  "reviler"  does  not  mean  one 
who  brings  grave  accusations,  but  one  who  deals  in  scurri- 
lous abuse.  We  see  then  here,  the  child  of  God  smarting 
under  the  vilest  opprobrium  and  eager  to  be  able  to  retort. 
In  the  case  of  the  young  Solomon  we  can  easily  conceive 
how  hard  it  must  have  been  to  endure  in  silence  the  malic- 
ious taunts  of  his  rivals  and  their  minions,  founded  upon  his 
present  low  position.  We  can  easily  comprehend  how, 
while  looking  forward  with  unshaken  faith  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  last  of  God's  promise  to  him,  he  yet  would  be  im- 
patient to  realize  so  much  as  would  enable  him  to  rebut 
these  taunts  and  revilings,  and  deliver  him  from  their  sting. 
This  is  perfectly  consistent  with  unshaken  faith,  for  in  the 
second  clause  he  asserts  that  the  petition  is  made  not  be- 
cause he  doubts,  but  because  of  the  pain  suffered  from  the 
sneers  of  others  that  at  the  same  time  he  feels  to  be  ground- 
less.    It  is  hard  to  hear  people  maliciously  reiterating  that 


I&eto,  jFre&erick  La  Rue  l&ing     235 

we  will  never  attain  our  hopes  and  mocking  our  pretensions. 
Our  Saviour  Himself  without  doubt  had  a  pang  added  to 
all  His  other  trials  in  the  mocking  to  which  He  was  exposed 
during  His  last  sufferings.  The  reed  and  the  robe  and  the 
"hail"  of  ridicule  were  as  really  painful  as  the  scourge  and 
the  cross.  His  followers  may  expect  to  be  delivered  from 
some  part  of  this  through  prayer,  but  He  had  silently  to 
endure  the  extremity  of  derision  throughout  the  long  agony 
of  His  dying.  And  this  was  all  the  more  painful,  because 
He  could  not  lose  His  confidence  that  He  was  the  Son  of 
God  and  Lord  of  all.  And  here  faith  is  a  necessary  ele- 
ment in  the  impatience  of  the  psalmist.  If  he  did  not  trust 
he  would  not  be  so  galled.  His  hope  makes  the  sting  to 
have  its  venom.  Who  could  feel  pain  at  the  taunt  that  he 
never  could  become  a  mighty  king  unless  there  were  some 
prospect  of  it.  Some  there  are  indeed  who  are  so  cold  and 
indifferent  to  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  others,  that  they 
can  endure  very  quietly  long  waiting  and  great  present  oblo- 
quy. So  it  is  not  with  one  who  loves  his  fellows,  so  it  is  not 
with  the  large-hearted  child  of  God.  These  revilings  and 
malignant  accusations  may  originate  with  evil  men,  who 
delight  to  hinder  all  good  and  the  representative  of  good; 
but  they  deceive  a  better  class.  They  are  caught  up  and 
reechoed  by  those  who  are  at  heart  friends  of  the  truth 
and  who  know  not  what  they  do  when  they  swell  the  howl 
of  execration  or  stand  by  giving  consent  even  to  persecution 
and  death.  The  petition  of  this  verse  may  be  used  by  the 
Christian  as  including  all  the  evil  cutting  words  they  get 
from  opposers  among  men,  but  it  applies  with  the  greatest 
force  to  evil  ones  of  the  hidden  sphere  and  especially  to 
Satan.  These  psalms  cannot  be  properly  interpreted  unless 
the  relation  of  the  child  of  God  to  his  spiritual  enemies  is 
taken  into  consideration.  The  Christian  discouraged  with 
the  taunts  and  revilings  of  Satan  may  very  properly  pray 
for  some  token  of  good — some  gracious  gift  that  will  en- 
courage    him  and     be  a  sufficient     answer  to  the     enemy. 


236  Selected  P$alm$  anD  ^onogtapftg 

"Word"  in  the  first  clause  is  not  pleonastic;  it  indicates  a 
special  answer  to  a  special  accusation,  and  may  also  allude 
to  the  fact  that  the  special  answer  is  based  on  a  partial  ful- 
filment of  the  great  word  of  promise  to  him.  This  is  one 
of  the  many  instances  in  the  psalms  of  the  enigmatical  play 
upon  words. 

Verse  43.  "And  lake  not  out  of  my  mouth  (this) 
word  of  truth  utterly,  for  in  Thy  judgments  do  I  hope." 

The  equivoque  noticed  in  the  last  verse  is  continued  in 
this,  to  get  the  whole  force  of  which  the  expression  "word 
of  truth"  must  be  left  indefinite  and  not  as  in  our  version 
referred  to  the  word  of  God.  The  expression  "take  not  out 
of  my  mouth"  implies  that  the  "word"  still  is  in  his  mouth, 
or  was  till  very  lately — that  he  usually  has  some  answer 
of  the  kind  indicated,  to  make  to  his  enemies.  It  is  a  little 
biographic  touch  and  shows  the  young  Solomon  during  his 
time  of  waiting  as  not  silent,  but  losing  no  opportunity  to 
make  good  his  claim,  and  doubtless  able  heretofore  to  make 
a  shrewd  statement  of  his  case.  It  is  what  we  would  expect 
of  his  ability  and  enhances  the  difficulty  he  must  have  ex- 
perienced in  exercising  faith.  But  now  his  trials  press  upon 
him,  some  new  crop  not  only  causes  discouragement  but 
gives  occasion  for  new  taunts  and  discouraging  remarks,  to 
say  nothing  of  abuse,  and  all  power  to  answer  seems  to  be 
vanishing.  This  the  word  "utterly"  seems  to  intimate,  and 
hence  the  prayer  becomes  importunate  that  God  would 
grant  that  partial  realization  of  His  promise  that  he  desires 
at  the  present  time.  He  calls  it  a  "word  of  truth,"  that  is 
a  true  answer,  implying  that  if  God  should  grant  him  dis- 
tinguishing favors,  it  would  not  cnly  be  calculated  to  im- 
press others,  but  would  be  in  his  case  a  true  indication.  The 
wicked  indeed  prosper  for  a  while,  but  that  is  delusive,  and 
even  a  snare  to  them,  but  the  prosperity  of  the  righteous  is 
a  solid  indication  of  God's  favor.  The  word  of  promise 
to  Solomon  was  not  a  promise  of  spiritual  blessings,  but  of 
temporal  power  and  glory,   so  there  was  the  more  reason 


Retn  JFreDerick  La  i&ue  Eing     237 

for  his  regarding  immediate  prosperity  as  a  true  indication. 
It  may  be  said  also  that  in  the  case  of  one  who  is  to  be  a 
king,  it  would  seem  necessary  to  have  the  throne  made 
ready  for  him  before  he  ascended.  A  youth  of  distinction 
would  add  to  his  prestige  and  so  to  his  authority  when  he 
came  to  be  king.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  in  Old 
Testament  times,  God  manifested  His  love  and  favor  to  His 
people  by  temporal  prosperity  as  an  ordinary  rule,  but  the 
trials  of  a  Joseph  and  a  Job  plainly  taught  them  that  the 
rule  was  not  universal.  God  then,  just  as  in  the  case  of 
Christians  He  does  now,  could  consistently  with  His  prom- 
ises cause  His  people  to  want  and  suffer.  This  paradox  is 
boldly  stated  in  almost  identical  expressions  in  Ps.  1 05 :  19. 
"Until  the  time  that  His  word  came  the  saying  of  Jehovah 
tried  him."  The  appeal  in  the  latter  clause  is  not  to  God's 
promises,  but  to  God's  justice,  "for  Thy  judgments  have  I 
waited."  This  fixes  the  meaning  of  salvation  in  verse  41 
to  deliverance  from  the  oppressions  of  his  enemies.  He 
asks  for  a  punitive  exhibition  of  God's  justice.  The  argu- 
ment here  used  with  God  is  this:  "I  am  in  such  a  strait 
that  God  seems  to  me  really  called  on  to  execute  justice,  as 
well  as  to  enhance  my  standing  as  to  deliver  me  from  dis- 
tress. The  earnest  expectation  of  the  child  of  God  is  a 
strong  argument  with  his  Heavenly  Father.  But  still  he 
must  not  insist  upon  God's  doing  what  is  just,  instantly  or 
in  the  particular  manner  that  seems  desirable.  He  may 
say,  "I  have  waited  for  Thy  judgments,  and  now  it  seems 
full  time  for  Thy  interference,"  but  after  all  it  must  be  a 
pleading  petition  as  here,  "take  not  utterly  out  of  my 
mouth,"  leaving  all  to  God's  decision.  God  sometimes 
delays  His  judgments  when  to  our  short  sight  they  are 
righteously  and  imperatively  called  for. 

Verse  44.  "And  I  will  observe  Thy  law  always, 
unto    eternity    and    perpetuity." 

If  we  make  here  the  word  law  to  mean 
strictly  the  Mosaic  Cult,  we  can  discern  a  connection  with 


238  ©elected  psalms;  ana  ^onogtapjjg 

the  preceding  verses.  These  "judgments"  which  he  desires, 
this  "salvation"  he  asks  for,  was  in  order  to  his  being  ad- 
vanced to  the  throne,  and  his  designation  to  the  throne  was 
in  order  to  the  fuller  development  of  that  "law"  which  he 
here  promises  to  observe.  That  cult  which  was  to  take  a 
further  step  forward  towards  its  full  magnificence  and  na- 
tionality through  Solomon's  reign,  was  the  great  means  by 
which  Israel  was  to  be  united  into  one  nation;  and  there 
is  little  doubt  but  that  one  great  reason  why  the  accession 
of  Solomon  to  the  throne  was  dreaded  by  some,  was  be- 
cause they  were  opposed  to  that  national  unity  and  that 
perfected  worship.  The  promise  and  resolve  of  this  verse 
are  in  close  connection  with  the  preceding.  Answer  these, 
my  petitions,  and  then  I  will  observe;  that  is 

1 .  I  will  out  of  gratitude  observe.    ' 

2.  I  covenant  to  observe. 

3.  Then  shall  I  be  able  to  observe  on  the  throne, 
I  shall  be  able  to  honor  the  law  as  I  could  never 
do  while  a  private  person. 

But  we  are  leaving  out  of  consideration  the  extraordinary 
terms  which  are  used  to  describe  the  length  of  that  obser- 
vance. It  is  to  be  throughout  all  time.  How  could  this  be 
the  resolve  of  a  man?  It  would  be  convenient  here  of 
course,  to  suppose  an  ideal  speaker  (verse  9)  the  church. 
But  we  have  elsewhere  shown  the  untenableness  of  that  pro- 
saic hypothesis.     Is  there  not 

4.  "an  equivoque"  in  the  use  of  the  word 
"observe,"  meaning  both  "I  will  keep  on  my  own  path" 
and  also  "I  will  watch  over  to  preserve";  "I  will  look 
out  for  Thy  law,  and  care  for  it  by  observances  and  institu- 
tions and  especially  by  the  great  building  of  the  temple 
itself,  that  the  care  shall  be  everlasting."  "My  provident 
institutions  shall  watch  over  the  law  through  the  long  series 
of  coming  years."  It  is  entirely  contrary  to  the  lyric  form 
to  explain  these  strong  expressions  as  the  utterance  of  an 


iftetn  jFreDetick  Ha  I&ue  iking     239 

ideal  speaker.     The  transition  is  too  harsh  and  the  idea  is 
too  much   a  matter  of  the  fancy.   Lyric  utterance  is  very 
nearly  dramatic  utterance,   and  that  precludes  idealization. 
The  singer  speaks  in  his  own  person.     The  poet  once  having 
conceived  the  singer  must  adhere  with  perfect  consistency 
to  the  conception.     Such  a  verse  as  the  ninth  and,  there  are 
many  of  the  sort,   utterly  precludes  an   application   to   the 
church.     While  the  supposition  that  this  is  the  utterance  of 
a  young  prince  who  knew  that  to  him  was  committed  the 
founding  (at  least  execution)  and  development  of  institutions 
that  were  to  conserve  the  Mosaic  Cult,  make  the  supposi- 
tion of  an  ideal  speaker  utterly  needless.     To  such  a  youth 
as  Solomon  the  best  part  of  his  blessings  were  his  opportuni- 
ties.    It  must  have  been  delightful  to  him  to  think  that  he 
could  make  such  a  return  to  God  for  His  care  over  him, 
to  provide  for  the  observance  of  the  law  throughout  the  far 
future.      His   position   was   one   of   peculiar   influence,    but 
every  child  of  God  has  in  his  degree  a  like  influence,     We 
live  not  unto  oursleves.      The  father  of  a  family  can  use 
these  words,  if  not  in  their  full  import,  yet  with  the  con- 
sciousness that  his  example  and  instructions  and  the  habits 
he  may  induce  upon  his  children  and  the  customs  he  may 
originate  will  tend,  generation  after  generation,  to  perpetuate 
an  observance  of  the  law  of  God  like  to  his.     These  words 
may  be  used  by  any  one  who  begins  any  movement  for 
God,  who  organizes  a  religious  society,  or  church,  or  founds 
an  institution  of  Christian  benevolence.      While  such  per- 
sons are  struggling  with  difficulties  and  especially  the  dis- 
credit that  almost  always  attends  beginnings,  they  may  plead 
the  far-reaching  and  long  enduring  influence  that  they  aim 
at  as  a  reason  why  they  should  have  present  help  to  tide 
them  over  present  difficulties.      "Help  me  now,  and  I  will 
see  to  it  that  thou  art  honored  in  coming  time  by  what  I 
am  striving  to  rear."      Taking  the  word  in  the  sense  of 
"observe" — the  other  branch  of  the  equivoque,   the  verse 
may  be  made  the  utterance  of  either  Solomon  or  any  child 


240  Selected  Psalms  anD  e@onogtapf)0 

of  God.  The  worship  of  God  is  an  eternal  worship,  they 
who  "serve  the  example  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things" 
here,  will  not  depart  from  that  worship  when  they  leave  this 
world,  but  will  adore  the  heavenly  realites  in  Heaven  itself. 

Verse  45.  "And  I  will  walk  in  a  wide  place,  for 
Thy  precepts  have  I  sought." 

In  a  land  like  Palestine  where  paths  were  so  often 
mere  gullies  or  ravines,  down  or  up  which  the  traveller  had 
to  pick  his  way  with  constrained  step — a  wide  level  plain 
admitting  of  smooth  and  easy  paths,  must  have  been  an 
unspeakable  relief.  The  pace  of  horse  or  man  would  be 
quickened,  steps  free  (see  "enlarged"  Ps.  18:36)  and 
journeying  very  rapid.  This  expression  of  the  psalmist  is  a 
strong  affirmation  of  the  freedom  with  which  he  would  act 
in  observing  the  "law."  Well  does  the  authorized  version 
translate  "wide  place"  by  "at  liberty."  Praying,  verses  41, 
42,  43,  for  earnests  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  made 
to  him,  he,  in  verses  44,45,  46,  imagines  himself  in  the  full 
realization  of  the  promise  and  in  the  kingly  position  at  last. 
Almost  inseparable  from  the  idea  of  kinghood  is  liberty  of 
action,  but  he  binds  himself  in  the  strictest  manner  and  in 
perpetuity  to  the  "law,"  a  law  which  made  him  but  the 
deputy  of  his  God  in  the  kingly  office.  And  yet  he  says, 
"I  will  walk  in  a  wide  place."  "I  will  not  be  obliged  to 
put  any  constraint  on  myself.  That  law  in  its  beautiful  rit- 
ual, its  glorious  satisfactions  and  promises,  gives  to  me  all 
that  I  can  desire  as  a  worship.  I  am  free,  perfectly  free, 
when  I  most  strictly  obey."  Indeed  the  verse  presents  one 
who  is  cramped  and  restrained  in  the  present,  because  he 
is  not  free  to  act  out  the  inclination  of  his  heart  in  obeying 
God.  Such  doubtless  was  the  situation  of  the  young  Solo- 
mon when  he  thought  of  all  that  work  for  God's  law  to 
which  he  was  appointed,  and  from  which  he  was  withheld. 
He  must  hold  his  tongue,  and  keep  back  his  hand  when  the 
impulse  must  have  been  very  strong  to  speak  and  act.  No 
wonder   that   he   looked   forward   to   the   beginning   of  his 


Retn  jFte&ertck  la  Eue  mm     241 

binding  service  to  the  law  as  the  beginning  of  liberty.  The 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek,  it  is  contained  in  the  correlative 
clause — "for  Thy  precepts  have  I  sought."  "Precepts" 
are  the  commands  of  God  that  assign  duties,  and  he  who 
is  eager  to  know  the  duties  that  God  assigns  him,  will  be 
free  in  His  service.  This  seems  to  be  the  foundation  of  his 
declaration  that  he  will  enjoy  the  largest  independence  while 
rendering  the  closest  obedience.  The  fullest  and  freest 
activity  of  the  child  of  God  is  only  possible  through  per- 
fect submission  to  His  will,  and  by  desiring  not  the  gratifica- 
tion of  self-will,  in  devising  and  carrying  out  plans,  but  to 
have  our  work  appointed  for  us. 

Verse   46.      "And    I   will   speak   of   Thy    testimonies 
before  Kings,  and  will  not  be  ashamed." 

Here  is  one  of  the  verses  that  distinctly  shows  that  the 
psalmist  was  heir  expectant  to  a  throne.  The  "testimonies" 
of  God  are  the  moral  law.  To  speak  of  these  before  kings 
is  not  only  to  avow  this  moral  law  as  the  guiding  principle 
of  his  action,  but  to  urge  it  upon  kings  as  their  proper  rule 
of  action.  This  is  evidently  the  language  of  a  prospective 
king  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  he  shall  be  sur- 
rounded by  fellow  kings.  These  words  imply  that  some- 
thing of  moral  courage  would  be  required  in  order  to  do 
this.  A  private  man  or  an  ambassador  would  have  no 
conceivable  reason  in  acknowledging  before  a  foreign  king 
that  his  religion  was  the  law  of  his  life.  But  an  eastern  king 
was  considered  as  the  source  of  law.  It  was  part  of  his 
royal  dignity,  to  do  as  he  pleased  in  all  things.  The  con- 
stant tendency  in  the  East  was  to  enthrone  the  monarch  as 
an  earthly  god,  and  it  was  not  easy,  in  the  presence  of  such 
potentates,  to  avow  oneself  as  bound  by  the  rules  of  action 
that  God  gives.  The  throne  would  appear  to  most  as  worth 
just  so  much  the  less.  The  testimonies  of  God  could  not 
mean  the  religion — the  cult — or  decree  by  Him,  for  no  one 
could  be  ashamed  of  that  in  those  days.  The  moral  direc- 
tions of  God  as  guiding  the  life  must  be  referred  to  here. 


242  Selected  psalms  ano  e@onograpi)0 

Verse  47.  "And  I  will  delight  myself  in  Thy  com- 
mandments which  I  love." 

"Commandments,"  guiding  law,  directions,  differing 
from  law  (cult),  precepts  (work  assigned),  statutes  (arbi- 
trary commands,  orders),  judgments  (judicial  decisions  ex- 
press or  implied),  testimonies  (moral  law).  Command- 
ments include  all  that  tells  us  what  to  do  at  the  moment — 
directions,  very  galling,  such  would  be  to  a  proud  king. 
He  might  in  speaking  of  God's  testimonies  before  kings  ap- 
peal to  the  eternal  principles  of  right,  but  to  be  made  to 
stop  suddenly  in  a  course  of  action,  or  to  modify  it  simply 
because  God  wills  it,  when  no  other  reason  for  our  action 
can  be  assigned,  would  be  a  very  trying  thing  to  a  high 
spirited  king.  Even  where  it  involved  no  shame,  it  would 
be  chafing.  But  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Saul  at  Gilgal,  it 
involved  waiting  like  a  schoolboy  when  everything  seemed 
to  call  for  promptitude,  and  all  the  people  looking  to  him  as 
king  for  action — in  such  a  case  it  must  have  been  to  one 
who  did  not  love  God  supremely,  simply  intolerable.  In  the 
mood  that  the  young  Solomon  is  now,  he  looks  forward, 
as  to  a  time  of  great  delight,  to  the  time  when  he  shall 
honour  God  by  evidently  appearing  as  His  servant.  O,  if 
God  will  only  grant  him  a  little  now  to  credit  him,  he  will 
esteem  the  visible  manifest  servantship  to  God  the  greatest 
honor.  God's  work  he  will  do  (verse  44),  and  it  will  be 
just  what  he  will  freely  choose  (verse  45 ) ,  the  holiness,  that 
he  prescribes  he  will  urge  upon  his  fellow  kings  (verse  46), 
and  it  will  be  a  daily  and  hourly  delight  to  be  directed  by 
Him  in  his  duty.  Well  may  he  say  that  he  loves  God's 
commandments,  for  not  only  are  they  of  the  greatest  ser- 
vice to  him,  but  they  bring  him  into  nearer  relations  with 
God  than  any  other  form  of  His  will.  They  are  like  the 
guiding  of  a  child's  steps  by  the  touches  of  its  mother's  hand. 
The  spirit  of  this  verse  ought  to  animate  a  Christian  always. 
And  yet,  since  now  we  cannot  inquire  of  God,  but  must 
receive  God's  directions  from  providential  circumstances,  our 


Eeto,  jFrenetick  La  ftue  ming     243 

trials  are  in  some  respects  harder  than  those  of  Solomon. 
Harder  because  it  is  harder  to  say  of  any  one  course  of 
action,  "thus  saith  the  Lord"  and  easier,  because  God's 
will  once  known,  it  requires  much  less  moral  courage  to  go 
forward.  No  other  gods  can  be  in  question  now.  The 
difficulty  is  that  we  and  others  doubt  whether  God  does 
command  and  that  even  when  the  words,  literally  interpre- 
ted, would  be  clear.  How  much  for  example,  of  the  sermon 
on  the  mount  do  we  explain  away.  Nature  and  men  per- 
suade us  that  God  has  not  spoken. 

Verse  48.  "And  I  will  raise  my  hands  to  Thy  com- 
mandments which  I  love,  and  I  will  muse  of  Thy  statutes." 

This  would  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  a  formula  for 
swearing — an  oath  to  keep  God's  commandments,  but  the 
word  used  for  "hand"  is  not  that  proper  to  the  oath.  It 
is  the  peculiar  word  for  the  hand  as  a  container — the  hol- 
low hand.  It  is  the  number  considered  as  an  instrument  of 
action  "lift  up  your  hand  in  the  sanctuary."  Ps.  134:2. 
Here  hand  is  used,  but  it  is  for  the  acts  of  blessing  not 
for  petitioning  that  the  hands  are  lifted  up.  (Though  the 
real  idea  of  blessing  is  petition  for  one,  still  it  is  in  language 
use,  an  act)  ;  hand,  is  used  in  Ps.  28 :2  and  143:  6,  evidently 
in  the  sense  of  asking  to  receive  and  so  probably  in  Lam. 
1:17;  but  elsewhere  where  the  hand  is  said  to  be  lifted  up, 
it  is  a  formula  for  swearing.  Wherever  the  hands  (are  said 
to  be  spread  forth,  there  is  a  petition  to  receive.  As  Ex. 
9:29  and  33—1  Kings  8:22  and  38:  54;  II  Chronicles 
6:  12,  13:29,  Ezra  9:  5;  Is.  1  :  15;  Jer.  4:31,  to- 
gether with  Job  11:  13;  Ps.  88 :  9  and  Lam. 
2:19;  Ps.  141  :  2,  where  there  is  undoubtedly  a  petition 
for  reception.  In  Ps.  63:  4  the  simple  text  would  imply 
action,  but  the  context  reception.  In  Lam.  3:41  the  sense 
of  reception  is  a  proper  one — the  proper  one. 

The  lifting  of  the  hands  then  in  this  verse  is  in  order 
to  receive.  The  psalmist  lifts  up  his  hand  to  the  com- 
mandments as  the  source  of  benefits  to  him.     He  not  only 


244  Selected  psalms  anD  aponograp&s 

loves  them  as  proceeding  from  the  God  he  loves  and  bring- 
ing him  into  constant  communion  with  Him,  but  as  that 
from  which  he  constantly  receives  good.  "If  ye  love  me," 
says  the  Saviour,  "keep  My  commandments";  this  is  the 
spirit  of  the  47th  verse.  The  spirit  of  this  verse  is — "if  ye 
crave  good  things,  keep  the  commandments  as  a  delightful 
means  of  getting  them.  Lift  not  your  hand  to  the  great 
and  powerful — to  your  fellows  or  to  nature,  seek  from  the 
commandments  what  you  want."  Self  interest  wisely  fol- 
lowed out  would  lead  us  simply  to  obey  the  guiding  hand 
of  God.  Other  paths  may  appear  pleasant  and  to  lead  to 
what  we  desire,  but  where  God  leads,  there  alone  is  satis- 
faction, there  alone  is  true  gain.  But  we  must  not  imagine 
that  the  mere  spirit  of  shrewdness  will  enable  us  to  act  in 
this  way  for  our  interest.  The  psalmist  adds  to  the  declara- 
tion of  his  intention  to  seek  good  from  the  commandments 
"which  I  love."  Love  must  first  impel;  the  consideration  of 
advantage  must  be  an  after  thought.  The  reversal  of  this 
not  only  makes  a  hypocrite;  but  renders  us  weak  and  de- 
ceivable  in  the  presence  of  temptation.  The  psalmist  was 
no  hypocrite;  though  he  sought  self,  he  was  first  godly,  he 
had  that  love  which  is  the  acme  of  all  policy.  The  "sta- 
tute" is  the  arbitrary  command,  not  near  enough  or  plain 
enough/  to  be  a  daily,  hourly  guide.  The  love  that  makes 
the  truest  self-seeking  to  be  devotion  to  the  commands, 
accepts  the  statutes.  And  as  one  gazes  at  a  picture  or 
listens  to  a  piece  of  music  that  he  cannot  appreciate,  but 
which  he  knows  is  a  masterpiece,  so  the  dark  and  myster- 
ious decree,  which  so  often  comes  to  him  in  the  course  of 
God's  providence  is  to  him  who  loves  God  a  riddle  of  won- 
der, which,  when  he  understands,  becomes  the  guidance  that 
he  needs  and  the  source  of  all  profit. 

ZAYIN. 
Verse  49.     "Remember  to  Thy  servant  (Thy)  word, 
because  Thou  hast  made  me  to  hope." 


Ketn  jFreOetick  La  Hue  Ifting     245 

"The  common  version  of  the  last  clause  (upon  which) 
is  forbidden  by  the  facts  that  the  Hebrew  verb  is  never  con- 
strued elsewhere  with  the  preposition  'on'  and  that  the 
Hebrew  usage  requires  a  different  combination  (which  upon 
it)  to  convey  the  sense  supposed." — Alexander. 

It  may  also  be  said  that  this  rendering  of  the  last  clause 
would  signify  that  an  influence  had  been  exerted  upon  the 
psalmist  independent  of  the  simple  promise,  to  cause  him 
to  depend  upon  it,  which  is,  to  say  the  least,  extremely  un- 
likely. The  second  clause  would  also  lose  the  correllative 
and  defining  office  that  it  holds  throughout  the  psalm,  and 
become  merely  an  additional  and  weaker  argument  urged 
upon  God  for  the  fulfilment  of  His  promise.  But  used  as 
we  have  always  used  it,  it  fixes  the  meaning  of  "word"  in 
the  first  clause,  "remember  Thy  word,"  or  perhaps  better, 
as  in  the  revision,  "the  word."  "What  word,  what  prom- 
ise might  be  asked.  And  the  answer  would  be  according 
to  the  second  clause,  "the  promise  involved  in  the  hopes 
Thou  jiast  induced  in  me."  "Remember  and  fulfil  my 
hopes,  for  Thou  hast  caused  me  to  entertain  them."  The 
fact  that  "word"  in  the  first  clause  is  perfectly  indefinite 
without  the  definite  article  or  the  possessive  pronoun  in- 
creases the  probability  of  this  explanation.  If  this  view  of 
the  meaning  of  the  verse  be  correct,  then  the  prayer  of  the 
psalmist  is  based  on  the  principle  that  God  is  bound  not  only 
by  His  specific  promises,  but  by  all  those  general  encourage- 
ments that  cause  us  to  form  and  cherish  specific  hopes.  And 
why  should  not  this  be  so  since  in  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being  and  all  our  innocent  hopes  are  rooted  in 
Him.  He  has  declared  that  His  word  of  promise  is  greater 
than  all  His  name,  and  yet  His  works,  words  and  acts — His 
whole  glorious  name  is  a  commentary  upon  the  specific! 
promise.  It  is  elevated  in  significance  by  the  promise,  while 
the  promise  is  rendered  more  clear  and  impressive  by  the 
broad  splendor  of  God's  name.  The  two  clauses  are  in 
strict  correlation.      It  is  as  if  the  psalmist  had  said,  "Re- 


246  Selected  Psalms  and  ^onograpfjs 

member,  it  is  a  promise,  since  Thou  hast  caused  me  to 
hope."  God  causes  us  to  hope  in  many  ways.  He  has 
created  us  for  hope.  The  healthy  soul  must  hope.  The 
mere  bounding  impulse  of  health  and  youth  will  fill  us  with 
hope.  Well,  God  cannot  create  a  lie,  these  bright  visions  and 
anticipations  are  not  deceptive;  they  are  from  God,  He 
causes  us  to  hope  in  this  way — they  are  conditional  promi- 
ses, and  we  can  appeal  to  Him  to  fulfil  them.  Whatever 
of  hope  arises  in  our  minds  in  considering  the  abundance, 
beneficence,  order  and  beauty  of  nature,  is  really  a  prom- 
ise on  the  part  of  God,  for  He  induces  it  in  us.  Those  so- 
licitations to  the  imagination  in  sunset  skies,  the  splendor  of 
opening  day,  the  vault  of  heaven,  or  the  beauty  of  the 
earth's  vesture,  do  not  deceive,  they  lead  us  to  body  forth 
the  things  that  shall  be.  By  these  and  more  than  all  these 
high  hopes  and  imaginings  is  God  bound,  and  to  them  He 
will  be  faithful.  We  are  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and 
all  the  hope  that  can  be  roused  in  us  by  the  love,  the  mercy 
or  the  good  will  to  others  that  we  find  in  ourselves;  when 
we  think  that  God  is  better  than  that;  all  hopes  based  on 
just  inferences  from  the  course  of  nature  to  the  end  of 
nature  and  man,  these  are  caused  by  God  and  He  will  be 
bound  by  them.  All  deductions  from  specific  promises  con- 
sistent with  all  that  God  has  revealed  of  Himself  and  His 
purposes,  are  of  the  same  character.  God  gives  the  outline 
and  our  imagination  if  it  only  keeps  in  view  the  whole  great 
word  of  promise  cannot  outrun  its  scope.  Solomon  was 
promised  the  kingdom.  But  we  have  no  evidence  that  the 
great  glory  of  that  kingdom  was  revealed  to  him.  Yet  he 
must  have  had  hopes  concerning  it,  hopes  which  comforted 
him  in  hours  of  suffering  (see  next  verse),  and  yet  for 
which  he  had  no  specific  statement  on  the  part  of  God.  He 
would  draw  his  conceptions  from  his  own  consciousness  of 
ability,  his  insight  into  the  state  of  the  kingdom,  his  forecast, 
his  view  of  what  was  needed  at  the  time.  The  very  name 
that  God  had  given  him  like  a  piece  of  purest  gold  might 


Eetn  jFreOenck  &a  Eue  i&ittg     247 

be  made  to  extend  as  gilding  to  cover  a  great  deal.  What 
visions  and  hopes  of  power,  usefulness,  splendor,  and  pleas- 
ure would  not  arise  in  the  mind  of  this  young  man  devoted, 
indeed,  but  worldly  wise,  and  fond  of  what  the  eye  sees 
and  the  ear  hears.  Like  a  ray  of  purest  light  refracted  by 
a  prism,  the  promise  takes  shape  and  hue  from  the  character 
of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  made,  and  in  that  form  he  may 
ask  God  to  fulfil  it  to  him. 

Verse  50.  "This  is  my  comfort  in  my  affliction  for 
Thy  word  hath  quickened  me." 

This  cannot  well  refer  to  anything  else  than  the  pre- 
ceding verse.  Hope  builds  its  castle  up  into  the  air  indeed, 
but  upon  the  solid  foundation  of  the  promise,  and  feels  that 
it  has  a  valid  claim  for  its  realization  at  the  hands  of  God. 
And  truly  this  is  a  comfort,  not  the  promise  in  bare  outline, 
but  filled  up  and  glowing  with  such  hues  as  the  imagination 
alone  can  supply.  It  is  comfort  in  present  trouble  to  be 
rapt  away  into  bright  scenes  which  we  can  assure  ourselves 
shall  be.  The  "affliction"  spoken  of  may  well  have  been 
that  arising  from  hope  deferred.  He  would  suffer  from  the 
fret  and  fever  of  inaction,  but  more  from  its  palsying  influ- 
ence and  seeming  death.  From  that,  the  promise  delivers 
him.  It  quickens  him.  And  that  does  not  mean  simply 
that  he  is  thrilled  with  hope  and  filled  with  the  delight  of 
confident  visions  of  the  joys  and  triumphs  that  are  to  come. 
Something  of  action  is  permitted  him  in  this  time  of  waiting. 
He  can  brood  over  the  problems  of  sovereignty.  He  can 
master  data,  he  can  plan,  and  purpose  and  form  himself  for 
the  throne.  The  best  work  of  a  man's  life  is  often  that 
which  is  done  before  what  we  call  active  life  has  com- 
menced. The  work  of  the  root  in  the  earth,  and  the  work 
of  the  plant  in  the  air  is  one  and  the  same.  In  the  previous 
verse,  then,  he  is  bold  enough  to  claim  the  fulfilment  of  his 
hopes  at  the  hands  of  God,  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
really  God's  promises;  in  this  verse  he  sets  forth  the  special 
formal  promise  as  the  living  principle  of  his  hopes.     There 


248  ©electeD  psalms  anD  ^onogtapf)0 

is  a  double  definiteness  in  the  expression  used  for  promise  as 
compared  with  verse  49.  It  is  "saying"  instead  of  "word," 
and  it  has  the  possessive  pronoun  "thy"  also — "Thy  say- 
ing." For  the  significance  of  "saying"  see  Ps.  105:  19 — 
God's  "word"  promised  Joseph  honor,  His  saying  ordered 
him  fetters  and  a  prison.  It  is  this  specific  promise  that  he 
owns  to  be  the  root  of  all  his  hopes.  With  it  the  whole 
universe  is  a  mirror  to  reflect  the  love  of  God.  With  it 
the  poet  can  look  into  sunset  skies  and  say  "such  is  that 
which   shall   be." 

"Come  forth,  ye  old  men,  look  around 
And  see  to  what  fair  countries  ye  are  bound." 

— Wordsworth . 

With  it  all  nature  is  bursting  with  the  great  secret  of 
God's  loving  purpose;  without  it  nature  is  like  ciphers  that 
have  lost  their  numeral,  like  sunset  clouds  when  the  light  is 
withdrawn.  What  men  call  the  light  of  nature  is  for  the 
most  part  reflected  from  the  Word  of  God.  Once  let  that 
go,  and  the  great  meaning  is  lost,  and  we  can  read  the 
universe  but  little  better  than  the  brutes.  We  cannot  de- 
pend on  God's  character  as  revealed  through  His  name,  for 
there  are  dark  and  terrible  things  written  there  of  God.  It  is 
the  promise,  the  inexplicable  promise,  that  outrunning  the 
indications  of  mere  nature,  gives  nature  a  soul,  and  makes 
it  instinct  with  life  and  love. 

Verse  51.  "Proud  (ones)  have  derided  me  greatly; 
from  Thy  law  I  swerve  not." 

Judging  from  the  correlative  clause  we  should  infer 
that  the  derision  of  the  proud  was  on  account  of  his  keeping 
of  the  law.  This  would  be  entirely  unsuitable  in  the  mouth 
of  the  Church  captive  at  Babylon,  or  in  the  mouth  of 
Daniel.  The  "proud  ones"  would  be  foreigneis  and  heath- 
en, and  they  would  never  deride  adherence  to  a  national  re- 
ligion. It  would  have  no  suitableness  to  the  case  of  the 
youthful  David,  or  even  to  the  case  of  Jeremiah,  for  though 


Eefcn  jFceDeuck  £a  l&ue  Mm     249 

we  find  in  the  latter  days  of  the  history  of  Judah  much  wor- 
ship of  false  gods,  there  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any 
opposition  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  The  law  is  to  the 
last  a  proper  thing  to  be  observed.  But  in  the  days  of  the 
Kingdom  of  David  and  Solomon  the  spirit  was  different,  a 
political  element  had  become  mingled  with  the  religions.  The 
revolt  of  Jeroboam  casts  a  light  back  upon  the  two  preceding 
reigns.  No  one  can  possibly  think  that  his  revolt  was  his 
work  alone.  Jeroboam  was  but  the  ambitious  leader  who 
took  advantage  of  a  feeling  existing  against  both  nationality 
and  the  law.  Just  as  truly  as  the  pride  and  ambition  of 
Solomon's  brothers  were  offended  by  the  designation  of 
a  Solomon  to  the  throne,  so  were  tribal  pride  and  ambition 
offended  by  the  designation  of  Jerusalem  as  the  civil  and 
religious  capital  of  the  nation.  It  was  plainly  manifest  to 
all  that  the  law — the  cult  that  was  identifying  itself  more 
and  more  with  the  metropolitan  character  of  Jerusalem — 
was  to  be  that  which  should  restrain  the  independence  of 
the  tribes,  humble  their  Kedeshes,  and  merge  their  greatness 
in  the  greatness  of  the  nation.  We  can  easily  imagine  that 
the  Jeroboam  impulse  which  in  the  end  reft  the  Kingdom 
of  Solomon  in  twain,  existed  then,  and  that  doubt  might 
be  entertained  whether  the  national  impulse  would  overcome 
it  or  not.  Shrewd,  worldly  wise  men  might  well  think  it 
good  policy  to  pander  to  the  secession  feeling.  Punctilious 
devotion  to  the  law  would  be  an  expression  of  views  upon 
national  policy — a  stand  taken  that  his  proud  enemies — his 
proud  brothers  and  their  adherents,  might  regard  as  su- 
premely foolish,  and  which,  notwithstanding,  might  inspire 
hate  and  fear  as  well.  The  humble  Christian,  as  well  as 
the  young  Solomon,  have  often  the  hard  trial  and  temptation 
to  undergo  of  appearing  to  others  and  to  themselves  ineffi- 
cient simply  because  they  swerve  not  from  the  law.  In 
earlier  times  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  "abode  in  the  Taber- 
nacle" and  gained  prestige  and  influence — the  same  is  told 
of  Scipio  Africanas.     In  the  time  of  our  Lord,  pharisaic  de- 


250  ©elected  P$aim0  anD  ^onogtapt)0 

votion  to  the  Law  won  popularity  and  power,  but  Solomon 
could  only  look  for  derision  in  the  present.  This  derision 
might  be  a  manifestation  of  violent  opposition.  And  no 
better  weapon  could  be  used  against  an  heir  expectant  of 
the  throne  than  derision;  to  cover  him  with  ignominy,  to 
show  him  as  inefficient,  wanting  in  energy  and  spirit,  might 
be  the  very  best  way  to  defeat  his  hopes.  But  it  might  also 
imply  temptation:  "Proud"  ones  offering  their  adherence 
and  help,  on  condition  that  he  would  walk  in  their  "proud" 
ways — the  way  of  Saul  and  the  nations,  and  it  might  be 
added,  in  the  way  of  the  tribes. 

Verse  52.  "I  have  remembered  Thy  judgments  from 
eternity,  Jehovah,  and  have  consoled  myself." 

This  must  be  connected  with  the  previous  verse.  His 
recalling  of  God's  judgments  may  not  be  in  a  vindictive 
sense,  but  may  have  respect  to  expected  deliverances.  As 
the  psalmist  looks  back,  he  sees  that  "from  eternity,"  that 
is  throughout  the  long  tract  of  recorded  time,  God's  judicial 
inflictions  have  ever  been  ready  for  the  help  of  His  suffering 
servants.  In  view  of  that  fact  he  may  well  wait  without 
anxiety  or  impatience.  Such  a  survey  also  consoles  by  les- 
sening temptation  arising  either  from  dread  of  the  proud  or 
any  attraction  for  them.  Their  power  and  pride  seem 
mean  in  view  of  the  judgments  of  God  that  overhang  them; 
and  all  that  they  can  offer  worthless.  He  consoles  himself 
in  the  third  place,  in  view  of  the  past  judgments  of  God, 
that  by  his  course  of  obedient  waiting  and  service,  though  he 
may  suffer  pains  and  privations  and  have  many  anxieties,  still 
he  has  secured  perfect  immunity.  God's  judgments,  fearful 
as  they  are,  are  not  to  be  feared  by  His  servants.  They 
should  be  comforting,  since  they  are  not  mere  exhibitions 
of  feeling,  but  true  judicial  decisions,  and  to  be  calculated 
upon.  Perhaps  a  ground  of  consolation  is  implied  in  the 
name  "Jehovah" — God  as  covenant  God  of  Israel.  The 
review  of  God's  judgments  strengthens  the  impression  of  His 
faithfulness  to  His  covenant  obligations,  and  gives  a  sense 


Retn  jFteOerick  La  Hue  l&iw     251 

of  power  in  the  midst  of  derision  on  account  of  apparent 
helplessness.  "From  Eternity" — we  cannot  do  without  the 
past.  God  is  there.  In  the  past  we  find  Him  especially  as 
a  prayer  hearing  and  answering  God.  We  see  His  hand 
busy  in  men's  lives  as  we  cannot  in  the  present.  To  vividly 
realize  the  past  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  draw  near  to 
God. 

Verse  53.  "Rage  has  seized  me  from  wicked  (men) 
abandoning  Thy  law." 

This  is  one  of  the  verses  that  show  that  the  real  or 
ideal  position  of  the  Psalmist  was  the  Holy  Land.  "Law" 
is  of  course,  the  Mosaic  Cult.  To  abandon  it  was  not 
to  abandon  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  but  His  prescribed 
forms  of  worship.  Therefore  this  could  not  refer  to  heathen 
to  whom  they  were  not  prescribed.  It  could  hardly  refer 
to  the  people  in  the  Captivity,  for  they  were  shut  out  neces- 
sarily from  the  practice  of  the  Mosaic  Cult;  and  the  effect 
of  the  Captivity  was  to  make  them  very  strict  in  observing 
all  the  provisions  of  the  law  possible  to  them. 

The  word  translated,  "rage"  is  very  strong  and  can 
only  be  justified  in  the  mouth  of  one  who  speaks  with  some- 
thing of  the  feeling  of  a  magistrate  appointed  to  coerce  evil- 
doers. This  makes  it  very  suitable  for  the  utterance  of  Solo- 
mon. The  incipient  king  so  far  from  being  tempted  to 
transgress  like  Jeroboam  and  perhaps  Absalom,  is  impatient 
for  the  time  when  he  shall  be  king  and  able  to  coerce  the 
transgressors  of  the  law.  This  feeling  may  be  proper  to  a 
private  Christian  now  when  he  sees  men  neglecting  or  mar- 
ring the  worship  of  God,  or  moulding  rites  for  evil.  He  may 
feel  outraged  and  indignant  just  so  far  as  the  feeling  arises 
from  love  to  God  and  his  fellows  and  from  his  sense  of 
duty  as  member  of  a  selfgoverning  body.  Authority  implies 
indignation  at  crime;  but  let  not  bigotry  or  prejudiced  ad- 
herence to  certain  accustomed  forms  feel  justified  by  this. 
We  indeed  have  a  law,  but  it  is  not  a  cult  prescribed  to  us 
by  God,  nor  by  the  authority  of  that  impossible  abstraction, 


252  ©elected  psalms  and  ^onogtap&s 

"the  Church,"  nor  by  use  and  wont;  it  is  that  which  to  the 
enlightened  mind  and  loving  heart  of  Christian  men  appears 
best  for  the  present  time.  The  law  that  we  obey  must  thus 
change  in  outward  form,  but  must  keep  the  same  relation 
to  the  church  as  a  way  to  come  into  rapport  with  the  loving 
God. 

Verse  54.  "Songs  for  me  have  been  Thy  statutes  in 
the  house  of  my  sojournings." 

The  word  "house"  would  be  entirely  inappropriate  in 
the  mouth  of  David — a  young  man  and  wandering  about, 
or  in  the  mouth  of  the  Church  personified;  but  would  be 
peculiarly  appropriate  in  the  mouth  of  the  young  Solomon, 
living,  as  is  probable,  in  the  palace  under  some  sort  of 
tutelage  up  to  the  time  of  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
'House  of  my  sojournings,'  i.  e.  the  house  where  I  so- 
journ, is  an  imitation  of  the  phrase  'land  of  my  sojournings' 
which  occurs  so  often  in  the  patriarchal  history,  Gen.  17:8, 
28:  7,  37:  l  ."—Alexander. 

This  kind  of  allusion  is  common  in  the  psalms,  and  is 
a  regular  part  of  the  lyric  form  used.  By  this  one  phrase 
here  the  psalmist  indicates  that  he  is  tried  as  the  patriarchs 
were,  that  longed  for  good  is  withheld,  but  is  promised  and 
hoped  for,  and,  more  than  this  a  consciousness  on  his  part 
is  indicated  that  his  waiting  and  trials  are  neither  purposeless 
nor  ending  on  himself  but  intended  to  subserve  God's  great 
and  loving  purposes  for  the  welfare  and  glory  of  His  people. 

During  this  time  of  waiting,  he  not  only  has  the  en- 
couragement of  hope,  but  has  also  matter  for  triumphant 
praise.  The  word  "song"  is  used  often  for  the  subject  of 
the  song.  The  Lord  is  said  to  be  a  "song"  for  His  servant. 
The  song  of  Miriam  was  the  simple  recounting  of  what  the 
Lord  had  done  for  Israel.  The  destruction  of  Pharoah 
might  be  said  to  be  the  "song"  of  Miriam.  The  implica- 
tion that  the  psalmist  has  substantial  cause  for  rejoicing  is 
strengthened  by  the  etymology  of  the  word  translated  "song  ' 
which  associates  it  with  harvest — the  joy  of  harvest.  And 


fteto.  jFreDerick  La  Eue  fting     253 

yet  that  which  the  psalmist  calls  "songs"  are  the  "statutes" 
— the  expression  of  the  arbitrary  will  of  God — the  farthest 
removed  of  all  the  aspects  of  God's  law  from  anything  like 
realization  of  desire.  This  verse  exhibits  the  psalmist  as  not 
only  entirely  submissive  to  God's  will,  but  as  hoping  all 
good  things  from  the  exercise  of  that  will.  God  did  not 
doubtless  show  him  why  He  caused  him  to  remain  and 
wait  so  long  in  "the  house  of  his  "sojournings."  It  was  a 
statute — an  arbitrary  and  incomprehensible  decree.  So 
delighted,  however,  is  he,  first  to  know  that  it  is  God's  will 
and  not  chance  or  the  intrigues  of  enemies;  so  sure  is  he, 
second,  that  God  tarries  not  in  the  performance  of  His 
promise,  and  that  His  time  is  the  best  time,  His  way  the 
best  way;  that  he  rejoices  over  these  privations  as  if  they 
were  joyous  fruitions,  just  as  a  soldier  who  confides  implicitly 
in  his  commander  rejoices  to  execute  any  movement  that  is 
ordered,  though  on  its  face  it  may  appear  needless  or  even 
injurious.  To  those  who  thus  rejoice  in  God's  statutes, 
there  will  arise  incidentally  many  pleasures.  They  will  be 
relieved  of  "the  weight  of  chance  desires,"  ambition  will  be 
no  more  their  taskmaster,  the  heart  will  have  leisure  and 
will  for  the  first  time  understand  its  own  wishes,  lowliness 
will  take  the  place  of  the  two  kill-joys,  pride  and  discontent, 
and  the  slave  of  this  present  evil  world  will  be  emancipated. 
They  who  by  God's  decree  are  made  to  sojourn  in  the 
wilderness  will  not  find  it  altogether  a  cheerless  place.  They 
will  have  whatsoever  is  needed  for  their  sustenance,  and 
they  will  find  besides  many  pleasant  spots  in  it,  and  there 
is  "spicy  store,"  as  Keble  says,  to  be  gathered.  But  that 
which  most  of  all  makes  God's  statutes  "songs"  to  those  who 
receive  them,  is  the  fact  that  they  bring  them  into  the  closest 
relations  with  God  Himself.  They  who  obey  God's  stat- 
utes, not  because  "they  commend  themselves"  to  their  rea- 
son or  conscience,  but  simply  because  God  wills  them,  may 
well  make  them  "songs,"  for  they  have  realized  a  great  part 
of  the  joy  of  the  redeemed — they  are  made  to  possess  God. 


254  Selected  psalms  ana  ^onogtapfts 

And  even  if  the  "house  of  their  sojournings"   be  like  the 
prison  of  Joseph,  it  will  be  no  prison  to  them; 
"Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make" 

— Lovelace, 
or  as  Madame  Guyon  says, 

"O  it  is  good  to  soar 
These  bolts  and  bars  above 
To    Him   whom   I    adore, 
Whose  only  name  is  love, 
And  in  Thy  boundless  will  to  find 
The  strength,  the  freedom  of  the  mind." 
Verse   55.      "I   have  remembered   in   the   night  Thy 
name,  Jehovah,  and  will  observe  Thy  Law." 

Throughout  this  stanza  the  situation  of  the  psalmist  is 
the  same.  He  is  in  the  darkness,  and  yet  holding  fast  his 
confidence.  In  verse  49  even  the  light  of  a  specific  promise 
is  not  granted  him,  and  yet  he  hopes;  in  verse  50  he  is 
suffering,  yet  comforted;  in  verse  51  derided  by  the  "proud," 
and  yet  swerving  not;  in  verse  52  consoled,  but  only  by 
remembering  God's  judgments  on  evil  oppressors;  in  verse 
53  amid  great  declension  zealous,  in  verse  54  tried  with 
hope  deferred,  and  yet  rejoicing  in  God's  sovereign  disposal 
of  his  lot.  Here  in  verse  55  he  observes  God's  law  although 
the  tide  is  all  against  him,  though  he  has  to  struggle  against 
the  force  of  example  in  his  associates  and  the  community, 
and  though  there  is  no  present  manifestation  on  the  part  of 
God  towards  His  true  worshippers  of  His  presence  or  favor. 
This  is  very  adroitly  expressed  by  means  of  two  correllative 
clauses,  the  first  of  which  has  the  force  and  office  of  a  similie, 
used  however,  not  as  similies  usually  are,  for  ornament,  or  at 
most  for  illustration,  but  as  an  essential  part  of  the  statement. 
Instead  of  saying,  "I  observe  Thy  law  when  all  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  are  discouraging.  Just  as  in  the  night  I 
recall  the  wondrous  manifestation  Thou  hast  made  of  Thy- 
self," he  says,  "I  remember  Thy  name  in  the  night  and 
observe  Thy   law."      This  is   Alexander's   translation.      It 


Eetn  jFteDerick  La  i&ue  Ifting     255 

seems  to  me,  however,  that  the  idiom  is  very  often  if  not  al- 
ways in  the  psalms  a  part  of  the  poetic  form.     By  giving 
the  tenses  their  literal  meaning  the  punctum  lyricum  is  defined 
— the  night  behind  the  worship  of  the  day  before — also  the 
verse  is  made  a  true  lyrica  oratio  instead  of  a  prosaic  state- 
ment of  two  correllated  facts.     Thus  "I  have  remembered 
in  the  night  Thy  name  and  will  observe  Thy  law."     Thus 
the   lyrical   moment   is   fixed,   and    the   lyrical   utterance   is 
simply  a  resolve  to  observe  the  law,  the  effect  of  the  first 
clause  being  merely  a  setting  forth  of  the  circumstances  of 
discouragement  under  which  the  resolution   was  made.     The 
name  of  God  is,  of  course,  all  that  by  which  He  manifests 
Himself — words,  works,  acts,  etc.,  and  to  constantly  realize 
that  name  is  to  have  a  constant  sense  of  God's  presence  and 
power.     Now  to  realize  the  psalmist's  position  we  must  con- 
ceive him  as  upon  his  bed  in  his  dark  chamber,  for  the  couch 
is  as  closely  associated  with  the  night  as  is  the  darkness.     All 
the  glorious  exhibition  that  God  makes  of  Himself  by  day 
through  the  works  of  nature  is  withdrawn,  even  the  starry 
heavens  are  shut  out  from  his  gaze.     Thus  he  is  deprived 
of  what  helps  him  most  when  he  wishes  to  think  of  God, 
and  which,  when  he  is  not  consciously  thinking  of  Him,  gives 
him  a  latent  sense  of  His  presence — lifting  him  towards  the 
infinitely  beautiful  and  great.     He  is  shut  out  from  human 
intercourse,    from   reading    the   Word   of   God,    events   are 
brought  to  a  stand  still,  the  whole  motion  and  progress  of 
life  ceases.     God's  usual  means  of  communicating  with  him 
are  absent,  and  the  poor  soul  (foolish  though  it  may  be  to 
think  so),   seems  shut  out  from  God.      The  darkness  has 
strange  power,  too,  to  quicken  fears.     The  mind  is  turned 
in  upon  itself,   upon  its  sorrows,   its  dangers,  its  anxieties. 
Real  dangers,  too,  approach  in  the  night,  crime  stalks  abroad, 
diseases  of  body  and  mind  are  aggravated;  superstitious  ter- 
rors also  assail,  and  he  who  is  wakeful  in  the  hours  of  the 
night  is  sometimes  as  desolate  as  if  alone  in  a  desert  even 
though  the  first  beam  of  morning  light  avails  to  change  the 


256  ^electeo  psalms  anD  ^onogtapljg 

whole  course  of  his  feelings  and  make  him  wonder  at  them. 
The  very  mention  of  night  implies  a  bad  night — a  night 
when  the  spirit  was  assailed  with  doubts  and  discourage- 
ments; for  it  suggests  wakefulness  from  trouble  especially, 
occurring  in  the  connection  it  does.  It  is,  then,  a  great  thing 
for  the  psalmist  to  say,  "I  have  remembered  Thy  name  in 
the  night,"  for  it  was  a  hard  thing  to  remember  God's  name 
then.  It  was  much  easier  to  remember  the  Devil's  name — 
the  power  and  oppression  of  his  enemies,  his  sins,  weaknesses 
and  errors,  his  sorrows  and  anxieties.  To  remember  God's 
glorious  name,  the  kind  acts  of  God  in  the  past  towards 
him,  and  the  words  of  truth  in  which  He  was  revealed  in 
the  Scriptures,  so  as  to  have  a  vivid  realization  of  His  pres- 
ence, and  power,  and  readiness  to  help,  that  was  hard.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  "name"  refers  to  any  manifestation 
of  God  in  the  sanctuary,  for  the  temple  was  not  yet  built, 
and  the  Shekinah  glory  had  not  yet  appeared  (see  Ps.  122: 
4),  but  we  are  warranted  in  including  in  it  the  metropolitan 
glory  of  Jerusalem,  that  dawning  prophecy  of  a  better  time, 
which  was  made  complete  and  brilliant  under  Solomon,  and 
which,  even  now,  would  deeply  impress  Solomon's  imperial 
mind.  Thus  it  would  be  with  a  feeling  of  hope  and  in- 
creased confidence  as  heir  designate  not  only  to  a  throne, 
but  to  a  divinely  planned  reform  and  national  advance,  that 
he  would  resolve  to  keep  God's  Law.  The  remembrance 
of  God's  acts  of  delivering  mercy  as  also  His  acts  of 
punishment,  both  essential  parts  of  His  Holy  Name, 
may  well  have  been  the  subjects  of  his  meditation  during 
the  night  watches,  and  would  quicken  his  morning  resolve 
with  gratitude  and  fear.  The  feeling  had  need  to 
be  a  strong  one  to  enable  him  to  face  the  opposition 
to  God's  law.  The  tide  was  against  the  appointed  cult  of 
Jehovah.  The  day  discouraged  worship  as  the  night  clouded 
joy.  No  happy  crowds  filled  the  courts  of  the  Lord.  He 
would  be  obliged  to  show  his  devotion  in  the  face  of  some- 
thing more  than  neglect.     This  is  eminently  suitable  to  the 


I&eto*  jFreDerick  JLa  I&ue  Mm     257 

time  of  the  young  Solomon  when  the  cult  of  Israel  was  dis- 
located as  it  was  at  no  other  time;  the  ark  on  Mt.  Zion, 
the  tabernacle  and  altar  of  burnt  offering  at  Gibeon,  the 
king  worshipping  with  song  on  Mt.  Zion  and  sacrificing  only 
on  Mt.  Moriah,  the  rest  of  the  people  sacrificing  at  Gibeon, 
while  around  Jerusalem  were  high  places  for  the  irregular 
worship  of  Jehovah.  And  yet  at  this  time  (Ps.  122:4) 
Jerusalem  was  the  place  of  holding  the  national  festivals, 
doubtless  under  great  protest.  (The  text  Ps.  1 22 :4  goes  to 
show  that  the  name  of  the  Lord  was  regarded  as  dwelling 
at  Jerusalem). 

Verse  56.  "This  has  been  to  me,  for  Thy  precepts 
I  have  kept." 

These  words  refer  evidently  to  the  preceding  verse. 
Alexander  condemns  as  unmeaning  the  usual  interpretation, 
yet  his  interpretation  is  not  much  better — "This  (observance 
of  the  law)  has  come  to  pass  since  Thy  precepts,  etc."  "I 
have  manifestly  observed  Thy  law,  for  I  have  kept  Thy 
precepts."  To  say  the  least,  such  an  utterance  seems  to  be 
flat  and  purposeless.  The  interpretation  disregards  the  dis- 
tinctive meaning  of  the  word  "precepts,"  which  is  the  title 
of  the  law  as  it  assigns  our  work.  Referring  then  "this"  to 
the  preceding  verse,  the  psalmist  would  seem  to  say,  "the 
precious  privilege  of  being  able,  in  the  night,  to  realize  the 
presence  and  power  of  a  loving  God,  was  mine  because,  dur- 
ing the  day  I  was  intent  on  the  service  He  assigned  me." 
Thoughtless,  selfish,  careless  living  is  a  great  burden  in  the 
night  time,  weighing  down  the  spirits,  and  tending  to  pre- 
clude that  trust  in  God  that  helps  to  realize  His  presence, 
and  is  really  included  in  the  meaning  of  the  word  "remem- 
ber." He  whose  remembrance  of  the  Lord  during  the  day 
stimulates  him  to  assiduous  service,  will  have  the  priceless 
privilege  of  that  remembrance  of  the  Lord  that  gives  com- 
fort and  joy  during  the  watches  of  the  night.  The  word 
"this,"  may  however,  refer  to  the  whole  stanza  for  faithful, 
humble  service — the  keeping  of  God's  precepts,  results  in 


258  ©elected  psalms  anD  S@onogtap!)0 

the  hope,  comfort,  firmness,  consolation,  zeal,  joy,  and  sense 
of  God's  presence  that  are  spoken  of  in  the  preceding  verses. 

CHETH. 

Verse  57.  "My  portion,  O  Jehovah,  I  have  said  (is) 
to  keep  Thy  words." 

To  translate  "my  portion  is  Jehovah,"  as  Hengsten- 
berg  and  the  A.  V.,  gives  a  richer  meaning  and  is  permis- 
sible, but,  however  it  may  suit  the  analogy  of  Ps.  1  6 :5  and 
Ps.  73:26,  does  not  suit  the  analogy  of  Ps.  1  19,  which  is 
wholly  on  a  far  lower  plane  of  feeling  than  that.  Not  God 
Himself  but  what  belongs  to  Him — His  law,  statutes,  pre- 
cepts, ways,  etc.,  are  spoken  of.  There  is  not  a  single  ex- 
pression of  love  to  God  in  the  whole  psalm.  "Blessed  be 
Thou  Jehovah,"  in  the  second  stanza,  is  only  love  by  impli- 
cation, or,  perhaps,  not  personal  love  at  all,  but  unbounded 
loyalty  and  hearty  choice  of  a  rightful  ruler.  Besides,  if  we 
translate  the  first  clause,  "My  portion  is  Jehovah,"  and  it  be 
allowable  to  translate  the  second,  "I  have  said  that  I  will 
keep  Thy  words,"  so  startling  is  die  change  of  person  that 
it  might  well  be  asked  "whose  words"?  The  fact  that  there 
is  an  address  to  Jehovah  in  the  second  part  of  the  verse, 
makes  it  probable  that  there  is  a  like  address  in  the  first. 
Besides,  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  a  kind  of  anti-climax  to 
have  a  simple  resolution  to  keep  God's  words  follow  a 
solemn  taking  of  Jehovah  as  one's  portion.  It  is  entirely  in 
keeping  with  the  selfconscious  legal  character  of  this  psalm 
that  the  psalmist  should  go  no  farther  in  his  devotion  than  the 
words  (commands)  of  God.  Highly  religious  it  is,  but 
there  is  little  of  that  personal  devotedness  which  is  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  psalms  of  David.  Still,  it  is  good  as  far  as  it 
goes.  An  excellent  portion  it  is  for  any  man  to  keep  the 
words  of  Jehovah.  It  is  a  better  provision  even  for  this 
world,  than  houses  or  lands,  and  better  for  us  than  the  clue 
of  Ariadne  when  we  come  to  enter  that  dark  region  that 
.lies  before  us,  and  which  we  will  soon  be  called  upon  to 


Ifteti*  jFreDetick  JLa  IEue  ding     25a 

traverse.  The  verse  shows  the  servant  of  God  and  the 
shrewd   man — Solomon. 

Verse  58.  "I  have  sought  Thy  favor  with  my  whole 
heart;  be  gracious  to  me  according  to  Thy  word." 

This  verse  is,  of  itself,  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  pre- 
ceding verse  cannot  be  translated,  "My  portion  is  Jehovah," 
or  as  an  address,  "O  Jehovah,  my  portion."  The  latter  es- 
pecially, which  would  express  a  very  ecstatic  feeling  of  union 
with  God,  is  quite  inconsistent  with  these  words  of  distance 
and  solicitation  which  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  approach 
of  a  courtier  to  a  king.  It  is  curious,  however,  to  notice 
how  this  character  of  religious  prudence  clings  to  the  psalm, 
no  matter  how  you  translate.  One  might  well  call  it  a  self- 
seeking  psalm  had  the  phrase  not  a  bad  sense.  It  is  certainly 
self-seeking  in  the  highest  and  noblest  sense.  Even  if  we 
make  the  psalmist  (in  verse  57),  address  Jehovah  as  his 
portion;  the  very  address,  though  it  is  ecstatic,  is  still  not 
self-forgetting,  is  not  love.  And  even  then  the  analogy  of 
interpretation  which  we  have  observed  throughout  this  psalm 
would  further  limit  this  ecstasy  and  make  it  not  ecstasy  over 
the  possession  of  Jehovah  Himself,  but  His  words. 

To  ask  for  God's  favor  implies  that  His  favor  is  at 
present  withheld.  But  from  the  two  following  verses  we 
learn  that  there  had  been  backsliding,  and  this  makes  it  very 
evident  that  the  verse  is  a  petition  for  restoration  to  favor. 
Even  if  it  should  be  interpreted  independently  of  the  con- 
text, it  still  would  indicate  a  want  of  God's  favor,  and, 
therefore,  we  may  take  it  as  a  suitable  expression  of  feeling 
for  the  sinner  in  his  first  approaches  to  God,  or  for  the  Chris- 
tian on  his  return  to  God  after  a  sinful  absence.  In  such  a 
case  all  the  conditions  of  successful  seeking  of  God  are 
present. 

We  must  approach  God  with  thorough  earnestness, 
"with  all  my  heart." 

We  must  approach  Him  simply  for  His  grace. 


260  Selected  Psalms  ana  ^onogtapftsi 

There  must  be  no  sense  of  desert.  There  must  be  a 
pleading  of  the  promise. 

All  these  three  require  faith;  indeed,  they  are  but 
modes  of  faith.  The  unreconciled  sinner  must  not  feel  that 
there  is  any  need  of  his  earning  a  right  to  the  promise.  If 
anything  is  needed  to  introduce  us  within  the  scope  of 
grace,  grace  becomes  no  more  grace.  We  must  come  to 
God  for  that  which  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  come  to 
God — as  in  Hart's  hymn: 

"Ho  ye  needy,  come  and  welcome, 
God's  free  bounty  glorify; 
True  belief,  and  true  repentance, 
Every  grace  that  brings  us  night, 
Without  money 
Come  to  Jesus  Christ  and  buy." 

A  paradox,  but  a  blessed  one. 

The  backsliding  Christian  must  not  think  that  he  has 
forfeited  the  promise  no  matter  how  long  or  gravely  he  has 
sinned. 

Anyone  who  seeks  God's  favor  with  all  his  heart  may 
plead   God's  promise. 

Verse  59.  "I  have  thought  on  my  ways  and  turned 
my  feet  back  to  Thy  testimonies." 

The  psalmist  hitherto  has  evidently  not  been  looking 
closely  to  his  actions.  This  carelessness  may  have  arisen 
from  great  worldly  occupations,  causing  him  to  forget  his 
duty  to  God ;  or,  what  is  more  likely  in  the  case  of  a  servant 
of  God,  he  has  been  led  to  feel  that  there  is  no  need  for 
him  to  be  careful.  Such  a  feeling  is  often  the  result  of  a 
long  course  of  obedience  or  of  high  raised  feeling.  The 
habit  of  doing  the  things  commanded  has  made  it  so  easy 
that  the  man  insensibly  gets  to  feel  that  he  may  safely  com- 
mit himself  to  the  care  of  his  good  habits,  or  to  the  power 
of  his  good  feelings — his  gifts  and  graces.  It  would  be  a 
delightful  thing  if  this  were  the  method  of  the  Christian  life, 
if  we  had  merely  to  give  way  to  an  impulse  within  us. 


IRetn  jFre&erick  La  Eue  Mm     261 

Says  Wordsworth: 

"Serene  will  be  our  days  and  bright 
And  happy  will  our  nature  be, 
When  love  is  an  unerring  light 
And  joy  its  own  security." 

But  the  fact  is,  these  days  have  not  yet  come.  We 
have  not  yet  been  made  perfect,  and  we  are,  besides,  walking 
among  snares  and  enemies.  We  have,  however,  received 
the  germ  of  a  perfect  nature,  the  beginnings  of  an  impulse 
which  in  the  end  will  be  a  perfect  guide,  and  the  life  of  a 
Christian  ought,  even  now,  to  be  for  the  most  part  a  life  of 
impulse,  for  it  ought  to  be  for  the  most  pari  a  life  of  love. 
The  poet  continues  insisting  on  this: 

"And  blest  are  they  who  in  the  main 
This  truth  even  now  do  entertain, 
Live  in  the  spirit  of  this  creed, 
Yet  find  that  other  strength  according  to  their  need." 

"That  other  strength,"  that  is  the  force  of  watchful 
obedience  to  God's  command.  The  Christian  will  often 
need  to  appeal  to  this.  As  well  might  a  mariner  commit 
himself  to  the  winds  and  the  ocean  currents  without  a  look  at 
his  chart  or  compass  or  the  stars,  as  a  Christian  commit  him- 
self to  his  impulses.  No!  the  true  Christian  must  learn  to 
combine  watchfulness,  with  reliance  upon  grace  working  in 
himself.  "Mine  eyes  are  ever  turned  towards  the  Lord  for 
He  shall  pluck  my  feet  from  the  net."  This  combines  the 
two  to  a  certain  degree.  But  one  must  not  regard  himself 
as  powerless,  and  looking  to  be  always  lifted  out  or  stimu- 
lated forth  as  by  a  power  external  to  himself.  This  is  indeed, 
what  the  Christian  is  sometimes  brought  to;  but  he  is  at  the 
perfection  of  Christian  action  at  once  dependent  and  inde- 
pendent, watchful  and  impulsive,  who  looks  to  God  to  work 
mightily  in  him  entirely  under  the  veil  of  his  natural  freedom, 
and  rests  upon  Him  in  the  exercise  of  his  active  powers.  This 
is  hard  to  attain — to  be  as  cautious  as  Gideon,  and  yet  to 


262  Selected  psalms  and  apnograp&s: 

be  as  trustful  as  Gideon,  when  he  was  at  last  taught  to  trust. 
The  temptation  is  to  rely  too  much  upon  the  portion  of 
grace  that  is  ours  already — upon  the  oil  in  our  lamps,  and 
the  result  at  the  best  is  described  by  Wordsworth  in  the  fur- 
ther lines: 

"I  loving  freedom  and  untried. 
No  sport  of  every  random  gust, 
Yet  being  to  myself  a  guide, 
Too  blindly  have  reposed  my  trust. 
Oft  when  within  my  heart  I  heard 
Thy  timely  mandate,  I  deferred 
The  task  imposed  from  day  to  day." 

Then  comes  a  line  that  expresses  the  very  resolution  of 
the  verse  under  consideration: 

"But  now  I  Thee  would  serve  more  strictly  if  I  may." 

The  examination  that  the  psalmist  has  made  of  his 
ways — his  customary  course  of  action,  has  resulted,  as  it  will 
in  most  cases  result,  in  the  discovery  that  he  was  straying 
from  the  right  path.  He  must  turn  back;  he  must  test  his 
actions  by  the  highest  principles  of  holiness  laid  down  in 
God's  testimonies  (moral  law),  for  he  has  been  on  the  verge 
at  least,  of  doing  wiong.  In  the  case  of  the  young  prince 
Solomon  we  may  well  imagine  that  the  temptation  was  some- 
thing that  allured  him  to  grasp  at  that  which  was  his  by 
promise,  but  which  he  ought  to  have  waited  for.  "All 
things  are  yours,"  said  the  apostle,  yet  we  must  be  content 
with  the  abundance  of  God's  house  while  we  are  waiting, 
and  not  hazard  the  very  promises  by  our  impatience.  Ps. 
65:4. 

Verse  60.  "I  hastened  and  delayed  not  to  observe 
Thy  commandments." 

They  who  find  themselves  straying  out  of  the  path  are 
not  without  a  feeling  that  they  have  sinned,  for  it  is  sinful  to 
stray.  But  if  they  hesitate  when  once  brought  to  the  know- 
ledge that  they  are  straying,  they  commit  a  new  and  greater 
sin,  a  sin  which  is  less  a  sin  of  ignorance  than  the  other.  Such 


I&etn  jFreoerick  La  Rue  iftins     263 

a  hesitation  is  often  because  we  have  but  slightly  "thought 
on  our  ways."  It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  weigh  and  judge  our 
course  of  action  in  the  presence  of  blinding  habits  that  are 
dear,  sinful  delights  that  we  dislike  to  part  with,  sinful  pride 
unwilling  to  confess  that  the  course  we  are  pursuing  is  wholly 
wrong.  When  the  servant  of  God  can  say,  "my  sin  is  ever 
before  me,"  then  he  will  be  likely  to  hasten  and  delay 
not  to  observe  God's  commandments.  The  word  "com- 
mandments," which  is  the  name  of  the  law  as  directive — 
as  pointing  out  the  path,  admirably  suits  the  image  of  the 
preceding  verse  of  one  straying  and  turning  back  to  the  right 
way.  It  is  one  of  the  little  indications  of  connection  in  the 
psalm  and  of  the  discriminating  use  of  the  names  of  the 
law. 

The  word  "observe"  would  be  more  poetically  ren- 
dered "look  to."  As  if  the  psalmist  had  said,  "Finding 
that  I  was  going  wrong,  I  immediately  looked  out  for  the 
waymarks  that  God  had  placed  to  guide  me."  Of  course 
the  implication  is  that  the  right  action  followed.  No  matter 
how  evil  or  lost  our  state,  if  we  only  look  for  them,  we  will 
be  able  to  find  waymarks  and  be  set  on  our  way  at  once. 
There  is  nothing  of  the  paralysis  of  despair  here,  no  hesita- 
tion from  hopelessness,  no  waiting  for  anything  on  the  part 
of  the  psalmist;  he  simply  gives  a  searching  look  for  God's 
directions  what  now  to  do  in  his  evil  case.  And  there  will 
always  be  something  to  do — a  course,  a  career  for  every 
one.  Even  if  he  is  sick  and  near  his  end,  there  is  a  path 
for  him  to  tread  marked  out  by  God,  a  life  to  live  for  Him, 
a  work  to  do  for  Him,  if  it  is  only  prayer  and  praise,  or 
simply  endurance. 

Verse  61.  "The  bands  of  wicked  men  environed  me 
(but)  Thy  law  I  did  not  forget." 

It  cannot  be  that  this  is  an  isolated  utterance;  it  must 
continue  the  account  of  his  experience  in  his  conversion.  The 
wicked  men  who  surrounded  him  were  not  so  much  a  peril 
to  him  as  a  temptation.     Yet  at  the  same  time  it  might  have 


264  Selected  p$alms  and  ©onogtapijs 

been  a  threatening  temptation,  a  menace  as  well  as  an  al- 
lurement. "Be  our  leader  in  things  wicked,  or  expect  loss, 
expect  destruction."  Young  princes  often  have  temptations 
of  this  character.  If  we  understand  "law"  in  the  sense  of  the 
Mosaic  cult,  then  we  must  take  the  temptation  to  be  a 
promise  of  support  and  advancement  if  only  the  young  Solo- 
mon would  agree  to  oppose  the  political  and  ecclesiastical 
plans  of  his  father  David,  or  agree  to  undo  them  when  king. 
We  can  easily  understand  that  the  promise  to  Solomon  of 
the  throne  and  the  manifest  designation  by  David  would 
make  the  young  prince  a  good  card  for  mal-contents  to  play. 
These  wicked  men  then  solicited  him  not  to  the  indulgence 
of  youthful  lusts  or  any  sin  of  that  character,  but  to  go 
against  the  law.  The  statement  that  he  did  not  forget  the 
law  sets  forth  not  only  his  thankfulness  and  complacency  be- 
cause that  he,  even  when  his  steps  did  a  little  wander,  was 
saved  from  utter  declension,  but  also,  by  implication  his 
present  devotion  to  God's  prescribed  worship.  The  tempta- 
tion must  have  been  a  strong  one.  "Bands"  suggest  organ- 
ization, and  point,  since  the  latter  part  of  David's  reign  was 
peaceful,  to  political  movements.  It  may  be  that  this  sudden 
and  threatening  temptation  came  to  Solomon  partly  because 
of  some  attempt  he  had  made  to  get  political  strength — to 
ensure  his  prospects.  The  child  of  God  has  himself  to 
thank  for  many  an  unholy  allurement.  Had  he  waited  on 
God,  and  been  simple  and  patient  and  hopeful,  he  would 
have  been  untouched.  But  he  thinks  to  use  unholy  tools 
holily,  and  lo!  they  aspire  to  dictate  to  him  and  be  his 
masters.  But  he  yields  not — will  not  yield  God's  Law. 
He  forgets  it  not.  He  would  gladly  have  a  cabal  in  his 
favor,  but  rather  than  make  the  guilty  concession  requisite, 
he  will  remain  an  isolated  youth,  without  any  adherents,  but 
his  mother,  adorned  with  the  shadow  of  a  future  possible 
crown,  but  little  and  despised  for  all  that.  Here  he  was 
fixed.     And  he  might  well  have  need  of  all  his  resolution. 


Eetn  jFre&erick  &a  Eue  l&ing     265 

There  may  be  an  equivoque  in  the  word  "bands";  it  may 
call  attention  not  only  to  the  organized  strength  of  the  tempt- 
ers, but  to  their  power  over  him.  The  revised  version  trans- 
lates it  "cords."  The  tempters  were  not  only  banded  to- 
gether, but  had  succeeded  in  binding  him.  Had  he  lacked 
firm  principle,  or  given  way  to  fear,  he  would  have  been 
lost.  But  when  he  understood  that  they  required  him  to 
give  up  the  law,  their  power  over  him  was  gone.  What  a 
blessing  in  the  hour  of  temptation  it  is  to  have  something 
definitely  and  clearly  before  the  mind  that  we  know  is  duty, 
something  that  we  will  not  concede.  There  is  a  great  ad- 
vantage in  being  able  to  hold  to  something  prescribed,  some 
institution,  some  act.  They  are  at  a  great  disadvantage  in 
the  hour  of  temptation  who  only  have  general  principles, 
whose  views  as  to  institutions  and  specific  acts  are  unfixed 
and  fluent.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  make  perfectly  clear  to  our- 
selves exactly  what  is  our  duty.  Then  we  have  something 
fixed  upon  which  to  plant  ourselves,  and  the  Devil  will  not 
be  able  to  swamp  us  in  a  discussion  of  general  principles. 
Good  habits,  good  prejudices,  wise  obstinacy  in  adhering  to 
that  which  is  good,  for  fear  that  the  better  offered  will  not 
prove  better,  these  are  great  helps.  Still  we  must  keep  in 
mind  that  a  Christian  cannot  live  by  prescription,  but  must 
be  ever  forming,  ever  growing. 

Verse  62.  "At  midnight  I  will  rise  to  give  thanks 
unto  Thee  on  (account  of)  the  judgments  of  Thy  right- 
eousness." 

Alexander  thinks  that  there  is  here  in  the  word  used 
for  midnight,  an  allusion  to  the  midnight  destruction  of 
the  firstborn  at  midnight  in  Egypt  at  the  exodus.  If  this 
be  so,  it  would  follow  that  "judgments  of  Thy  righteous- 
ness" must  mean  judicial  inflictions.  Indeed,  from  verse  75 
we  judge  that  it  cannot  be  otherwise  interpreted.  The 
three  stanzas,  of  which  this  is  the  first,  have  for  their  com* 
mon  subject  the  partial  backsliding  of  the  psalmist  and  his 


266  ©elected  Psalms  mio  ^onograpfjs 

recovery.  "The  judgments  of  Thy  righteousness,"  in  this 
verse,  must  be  the  same  as  "Thy  judgments  which  are 
righteousness"  in  verse  75,  and  they  are  plainly  judicial  in- 
flictions— simply  chastisements;  here  judgments  of  deliver- 
ance as  well  as  chastisements. 

That  they  are  the  first  is  implied  in  the  historical  allu- 
sion, and  such  judgments  would  be  eminently  suitable  to 
enable  him  to  emerge  from  the  threatening  temptations  of 
verse  6 1 .  And  that  they  are  the  latter  seems  probable  since 
in  verse  75  these  judgments  are  personal  inflictions,  and  in 
verse  65  chastisements  are  made  the  means  of  his  recovery 
from  backsliding.  It  may  also  be  said  that  judgments  on 
the  wicked  men  (verse  6 1 )  would  involve  judgments  on 
himself  since  he  was  in  their  company  and  had  gone  some 
of  the  way  to  meet  them.  He  had  sought  those  by  whom 
he  was  at  last  beset.  Also  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  judg- 
ments upon  ungodly  companions  that  remove  them  from 
us  are  often  the  most  severe  of  chastisements  and  the  most 
mysterious  of  dispensation  to  ourselves.  But  when  the  due 
effect  is  wrought  upon  us,  when  the  temptation  is  removed 
and  we  think  on  our  ways,  and  turn  back  our  feet  to  God's 
testimonies  (verse  59),  then  no  blessing  of  God  is  so 
calculated  to  call  out  thankfulness.  Here  we  see  it  is  thank- 
fulness that  will  not  let  the  psalmist  sleep.  The  remem- 
brance of  his  peril,  the  consciousness  of  his  deliverance,  go 
with  him  to  his  couch  and  remain  with  him  during  the  night 
watches,  and  his  wonder  and  praise  at  midnight  are  like 
the  wonder  and  praise  of  the  children  of  Israel  upon  another 
midnight,  when,  at  a  stroke,  their  chains  were  broken,  and 
the  march  of  deliverance  began. 

Verse  63.  "A  fellow  I  (am)  to  all  that  fear  Thee 
and  to  the  keepers  of  Thy  precepts." 

There  may  be  in  the  word  "fellow"  a  reference  to  the 
temptation  and  partial  declension  through  which  he  has 
recently  passed.      As  if  he  had  said,   "I  have  withdrawn 


Ifteth  JFreOerick  La  Eue  ding     267 

myself  from  the  fellowship  of  those  wicked  men  who  sur- 
rounded me,  and  would  have  led  me  astray,  and  have 
joined  myself  to  the  fellowship  of  God's  servants."  And 
we  may  draw  from  this  the  lesson  that  the  most  effectual 
way  to  deliver  ourselves  from  wicked  entanglements,  is  to 
join  ourselves  to  the  good.  It  means  this,  but  also  more. 
The  recovered  backslider  does  not  merely  choose  fearers  of 
Jehovah  for  his  associates  and  equals,  but  all  the  fearers  of 
God,  that  is,  any  one  who  fears  God,  whatever  his  condi- 
tion of  life  may  be.  Pride  seems  thoroughly  mortified  in 
him. 

They  who  truly  repent  and  turn  to  the  Lord  will  be 
as  much  distinguished  by  lowliness  of  behavior  towards, 
and  loving  equal  union  with  all  His  servants,  as  by  adher- 
ence to  His  law.  And  thus  it  is  with  the  psalmist.  Does 
not  his  mentioning  it  show  that  he  was  likely  to  be  tempted 
to  loftiness  of  demeanor  on  account  of  his  high  social 
claims?  It  certainly  seems  suited  to  the  circumstances  and 
character  of  a  young  prince  like  Solomon,  who  was  ready 
enough,  as  we  see  by  his  after  history,  to  assume  lofty  state 
and  to  surround  himself  with  observance  and  the  barriers 
of  close  drawn  etiquette.  The  temptation  that  offered  to 
him  power  and  party  promised  to  gratify  this  tendency. 
And  this  he  resolves  to  cast  away  when  he  shrinks  from 
paying  the  price  of  apostacy  and  turns  with  renewed  love 
to  the  law  of  God.  He  descends  eagerly  to  his  position  of 
tutelage  and  social  obscurity,  glad  and  thankful  to  make 
persons,  nameless  and  despised,  his  companions  if  only  they 
are  the  servants  of  his  Master. 

Verse  64.  "Of  Thy  mercy  oh  Jehovah,  full  is  the 
earth;  Thy  statutes  teach  me." 

"Since  Thy  mercy  fills  the  whole  earth,  let  it  reach 
to  me,  enabling  me  to  understand  Thy  will  and  obey  it." — 
Alexander.  This  would  make  the  verse  nearly  identical 
with  verse   1 24 ;  the  only  difference  being  that  here  God's 


268  Selected  Psalms  arm  a^onograpbs 

mercy  as  creator  and  governor  of  the  world  is  appealed  to; 
there,  God's  mercy  as  known  by  experience  of  His  dealings. 
Verse  124  can  mean  only  this,  the  regimen  compels  it. 
And  one  cannot  call  it  unsuitable  in  the  mouth  of  a  man 
newly  delivered  from  backsliding,  and  newly  reconverted  to 
God.  We  can  imagine  such  a  one  in  the  consciousness 
of  ill  desert,  looking  for  encouragement  to  the  evidences  of 
God's  mercy  in  all  Nature,  and  invoking  the  exercise  of 
that  mercy  towards  him,  making  so  clear  to  him  God's  will, 
that  the  deserts  of  temptation  may  have  no  power  hereafter 
to  obscure  it  and  so  render  him  an  easy  prey.  And  well 
may  God's  mercy  be  appealed  to  for  this,  since  one  of  the 
evil  effects  of  sin  and  its  just  punishment  is  the  loss  of  sim- 
plicity and  sincerity  of  judgment,  so  that  the  soul  is  not 
only  tempted,  but  puzzled  and  bewildered  in  its  efforts  to 
discover  what  is  God's  will.  Deserving  to  be  left  in  the 
maze,  the  soul  may  still  appeal  to  God's  mercy  for  delivering 
light.  God's  way  of  giving  light,  however,  may  be  very 
painful. 

More  than  one  feeling  may  be  expressed  by  these 
words.  It  may  be  that  the  psalmist  strengthens  himself  in 
his  renewed  submission  to  God,  by  the  thought  that  He  is 
a  merciful  God  and  that  what  He  requires  will  not  be 
harsh  or  unnecessary.  The  statutes  of  God  engraven  on 
the  adamantine  rock  of  nature  and  unalterable,  result  in 
beauty,  comfort  and  provident  and  even  tender  ministry. 
The  whole  earth  proclaims  that  God  is  merciful.  We  may 
then  say  in  sum,  that  the  psalmist  has  been  delivered  from 
temptation  by  being  taught  God's  statutes  and  praying  that 
in  the  future  that  knowledge  may  ever  be  his;  and  full  of 
the  compunction  arising  from  a  clearer  view  of  God's  re- 
quirements, declares  his  willingness  to  submit  to  those  com- 
mands whatever  they  may  be,  comforting  himself  with  the 
knowledge  drawn  from  the  works  of  God  that  those  com- 
mands will  be  gentle  and  beneficient. 


Eeto*  jFreOerick  £a  Eue  i&ing     269 

TETH. 

Verse  65.  "Good  hast  Thou  done  to  Thy  servant, 
O  Jehovah,  according  to  Thy  word." 

This  stanza  continues  the  general  strain  of  the  pre- 
ceding one.  It  is  with  the  psalmist  a  time  of  chastisement 
and  reform.  The  first  tendency  of  the  soul  brought  into 
trial  of  such  a  kind  is  to  think  that  God  is  against  it  and 
is  about  to  punish,  that  His  patience  is  worn  out  and  the 
promises  ours  no  longer.  Often  there  is  a  temptation  to 
think  that  God  is  unkind  and  unjust  in  His  dealings.  If 
the  psalmist  has  had  this  feeling,  it  has  passed  away.  Chas- 
tisement has  had  its  blessed  effect  in  purging  the  sight  and 
softening  the  heart.  He  is  made,  through  the  sharp  stroke, 
to  see  God's  hand  in  his  life,  and  to  recognize  it  not  merely 
as  the  hand  of  a  ruler  but  of  one  who  loves  him.  He 
begins  to  learn  the  true  meaning  of  the  experiences  through 
which  he  has  passed.  God  has  done  good  and  not  evil  to 
him,  and  not  only  that,  but  He  has  been  all  the  while  ful- 
filling His  promises  to  him.  It  is  conceivable  that  one 
means  that  God  used  to  awaken  him  from  his  false  hopes, 
and  to  deliver  him  from  his  temptation,  was  to  reveal  to 
him  the  character  of  those  with  whom  he  was  about  to 
join  himself.  Tempters  soon  become  masters.  The  prince 
who  is  set  upon  the  throne  by  an  intrigue  and  especially  an 
unhallowed  intrigue,  is  a  servant  to  his  supporters.  Solo- 
mon, had  he  been  lifted  to  the  throne  by  means  of  a  cabal 
against  the  metropolitan  and  theocratic  movement  of  the 
reign  of  David,  would  have  found  himself  shorn  of  real 
power.  The  failure  of  Solomon  to  concede  anything  to 
them,  the  fact  that,  even  when  environed  by  them,  he  did 
not  forget  the  law,  (verse  61),  might  have  removed  the 
mask  and  revealed  the  hidden  contempt,  imperiousness  and 
malice  of  these  pretended  friends.  Thus  may  Solomon  well 
say,  when  God  has  spoiled  all  his  plans  and  brought  him 
into  great  suffering,  "Good  hast  Thou  done,"  etc.     The 


270  Selected  psalms  and  ^onogtapfts 

emphatic  position  of  the  word  "good,"  and  indeed,  the 
whole  clause,  implies  that  there  had  been  at  first  a  pang  of 
disappointment,  and  that  what  God  had  done  had  not 
appeared  good;  but  his  eyes  had  been  opened  to  behold 
the  "wonders"  of  God's  providential  dealings.  The  appli- 
cation is  easy  to  the  case  of  any  child  of  God  who  has 
hoped  for  gain  from  worldly  associations,  and  has  been 
delivered  from  those  associations  through  the  contempt  and 
slights  he  was  made  to  suffer  because  of  his  shrinking  back 
from  open  sin.  As  the  Israelites  were  taught  the  nature 
of  heathenism  by  being  made  to  undergo  a  heathen  yoke, 
so  with  him  temptation  has  been  transmuted  into  a  scourge 
and  so  has  revealed  its  real  character.  When  this  takes 
place  well  may  he  exclaim  in  surprise,  "It  was  then  good 
and  not  evil  that  came  upon  me." 

Verse  66.  "Goodness  of  judgment  and  knowledge 
teach  me,  for  in  Thy  commandments  I  believe." 

The  preceding  verse  shows  the  enlightening  effect  of 
discipline.  He  now  prays  that  he  may  be  permanently  en- 
dowed with  wisdom  in  this  respect.  He  asks,  "Give  me 
insight  into  Thy  dealings  that  I  may  know  their  real  char- 
acter, and  not  be  tempted  to  hard  thoughts  of  Thee,  or 
even  to  a  momentary  sense  of  desertion  and  desolation." 
But  the  verse  may  have  a  wider  scope.  Indeed  it  may  be 
said  of  the  verses  of  this  psalm  that  while  commentators  have 
needlessly  despaired  of  finding  a  connection  between  them, 
still  they  do  stand  as  independent  statements  and  have  a 
larger  meaning  than  is  necessitated  by  the  connection.  We 
may  therefore  understand  this  as  a  petition  for  wisdom  in 
the  discharge  of  the  affairs  of  this  life  generally.  It  is  worthy 
of  being  noted  that  Solomon's  petition  to  God  at  Gibeon 
upon  his  accession  was  for  "an  understanding  heart."  It 
behooves  the  child  of  God  to  believe  that  God's  divine 
guidance  may  be  had  in  the  affairs  of  life  from  day  to  day. 
and  that  true  prayer  for  this  will  be  answered  not  by  voice 


Eetn  jFreOericfe  La  iRue  l&tng     271 

or  vision  as  they  were  guided,  who  of  old  inquired  of  the 
Lord;  but  by  guidance  not  less  real  than  that  which  the 
Israelites  enjoyed  when  the  cloud  and  the  fire  led  them 
through  the  desert.  This  confidence  the  psalmist  expresses 
in  the  second  clause,  "for  in  Thy  commandments" — the 
law,  as  directing  one's  path — "I  believe."  This  is  the 
reason  why  he  asks  for  "goodness  of  judgment  and  know- 
ledge." He  believes  that  God  has  furnished  to  him  in  the 
"commandments"  a  sufficient  and  infallible  guidance  in  the 
conduct  of  life.  He  feels  that  they  are  his  best  policy  and 
that  when  he  holds  fast  to  them,  then  he  is  shrewd  indeed. 
The  brave  command  however,  would  not  be  enough;  it 
would  indeed  be  little,  were  not  "goodness  of  judgment" 
also  granted — power  to  understand  and  apply.  Not 
servilely  nor  stupidly  must  God's  "commandments"  be  re- 
ceived and  acted  out.  Like  the  rules  of  an  art,  they  must 
be  received  and  applied  by  intuitions  that  are  themselves 
directive.  And  this  leads  to  the  remark  in  the  last  place, 
that  God  guides  and  commands  not  merely  by  issuing  the 
direction  in  so  many  words.  Natural  wisdom  is  the  gift 
of  God,  and  he  who  uses  his  natural  wisdom  lowlily  and 
in  reliance  on  God,  will  have  introduced  into  it  a  higher 
wisdom,  even  a  divine,  and  thus  in  the  exercise  of  his 
powers  as  a  man,  he  becomes  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of 
the  Highest. 

Verse  67.  "Before  I  suffered  I  (was)  going  astray, 
and  now  Thy  saying  I  observe." 

The  keynote  of  this  stanza  together  with  the  preceding 
and  following  one  is  evidently  "chastisement  and  its  blessed 
effects."  If  we  have  been  correct  in  our  previous  exposi- 
tion, the  "going  astray"  has  been  by  reason  of  false  hopes; 
and  this  is  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  his  returning  and 
repentance  is  shown  by  his  observing — looking  to — God's 
"saying" — the  word  of  His  promise.  Lured  by  those  who 
had  promised  him  a  rapid  realization  of  his  expectations. 


272  ©elected  Psalms  and  ^onograpbs 

he  had  well  nigh  turned  his  hopes  away  from  the  promise 
and  based  it  upon  these  intriguers,  but  being  made  to  suffer 
he  now  looks  alone  to  the  promise  of  God  for  hope  and 
encouragement. 

Suffering,  pure  and  simple,  is  often  sufficient  to  call 
the  child  of  God  to  himself,  for  he  is  made  to  feel  at  once 
the  necessity  for  God's  help  and  the  powerlessness  of  earthly 
consolation.  He  has  a  foretaste  of  the  last  result  of  trust- 
ing to  the  world,  and  turns  to  God  while  it  is  yet  time — to 
the  word  of  His  promise.  Much  more  is  this  the  case, 
when  as  often  happens,  the  error  gives  birth  to  the  chas- 
tisement, when  they  who  allure  trouble  him,  or,  smitten 
themselves,  involve  him  in  their  disaster.  Well  for  the 
child  of  God  if  suffering,  that  watchful  sentinel,  warn  him 
in  time  for  him  to  extricate  himself. 

Verse  68.  "Good  (art)  Thou  and  doing  good;  teach 
me  Thy  statutes." 

Not  "do  one  good  thing  more  by  teaching  me  Thy 
statutes."  This  verse  must  be  interpreted  as  the  64th  was. 
The  first  clause  is  not  a  plea;  it  assigns  the  reason  why  he 
asks;  not  the  reason  why  God  should  grant.  There  is 
something  here  of  the  glow  of  feeling  with  which  in  verse 
65  he  recognizes  that  what  he  had  thought  so  bad  for  him 
was  really  good  for  him,  and  brought  upon  him  by  God  in 
the  fulfilment  of  His  gracious  promise.  Indeed  there  is  even 
a  higher  and  deeper  feeling  here.  The  surprise  and  grati- 
titude  with  which  he  discovers  God's  goodness  in  what  he 
thought  hardness  and  severity  in  verse  58  carries  him  for- 
ward to  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  all  God's  acts  every- 
where are  good  and  the  outcome  of  a  nature  that  is  good, 
and  this  is  the  reason  why  he  desires  to  be  taught  God's 
statutes.  Now  "statutes"  is  the  law  considered  as  the 
expression  of  God's  arbitrary  will.  It  is  this  that  the  psalm- 
ist desires  to  understand  and,  of  course,  strictly  to  obey. 
High  as  is  the  spirituality  of  this  psalm,  it  has  its  limitations. 


Iftetn  jFreDeuck  &a  Eue  Mm     273 

Here  is  no  utter  surrender  of  his  will  to  God's  will,  but 
to  God's  enactment,  His  order.  At  the  same  time  there  is 
more  here  than  the  feeling  that  it  would  be  good  for  him 
to  know  and  obey  whatever  God  insists  upon.  There  is 
something  other  and  higher  than  this;  and,  though  we  may 
not  claim  for  the  psalmist  the  unreserved  devotion  charac- 
teristic of  love,  still  there  is  something  in  such  a  vision  of 
the  divine  goodness  that  draws  forth  the  soul  into  rapport 
with  the  divine  greatness — that  infinite  sum  of  all  being — 
and  gives  the  soul  to  know  that  it  is  all,  that  there  is  nothing 
beyond;  and  enables  the  soul  to  choose  it  in  the  place  of  all 
things  and  repose  in  God  forever. 

Verse  69.     "Proud  (men)  have  forged  a  lie  against 
me;  I  with  all  (my)  heart  will  keep  Thy  precepts." 

This  verse  has  been  understood  to  refer  to  the  accusa- 
tions made  to  the  king  of  Persia  against  the  Jews  who  were 
building  the  Temple  (Ezra  4th  chapter).  No  doubt  the 
Jews  at  that  time  could  make  his  language  their  own;  but 
still  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  it  has  direct  reference  to 
this.  It  injures  the  lyrical  character  of  the  piece  to  make1 
it  the  utterance  of  an  impersonal  church;  and  besides  it 
further  requires  a  depersonification  to  make  it  suit  the  case 
of  an  individual  believer.  Besides,  though  pride  may  have 
entered  as  an  element  into  the  opposition  of  the  "people  of 
the  land"  to  the  Jews,  still  it  never  would  have  occurred 
to  the  sufferers  to  describe  that  by  the  sole  characteristic  of 
pride  which  was  mainly  envy  and  malignity  and  hatred  of 
God  and  His  people.  But  we  know  that  pride,  tribal  pride 
and  pride  of  royalty  was  one  of  the  main  obstacles  to  the 
theocratic  Davidic  policy,  political  and  ecclesiastical.  By 
the  accession  of  Solomon,  who  without  doubt  had  declared 
his  adherence  to  the  new  cults,  pride  would  be  permanently 
humbled.  Solomon's  ambitious  brothers  would  also  be  well 
described  as  proud  men.  We  can  easily  understand  that 
they  as  well  as  the  proud  chiefs  of  tribes,  would  intrigue 


274  ©electeD  p$alm$  and  a^onograpljs 

against  the  expectant  heir  to  the  throne.  The  lie  that 
they  would  contrive  against  him  might  be  accusations  calcu- 
lated to  poison  the  mind  of  David  and  make  him  think 
that  this  son  of  his  was  either  planning  to  gain  the  throne 
surreptitiously,  or  else  was  intending  to  overthrow,  when 
on  the  throne,  the  institutions  that  were  specially  character- 
istic of  his  father's  reign;  while  on  the  other  hand,  these  very 
men  might  be  representing  to  the  tribes  thai  Solomon  would 
be  the  very  tyrant  he  was  regarded,  at  the  time  of  the  ac- 
cession of  Jereboam.  Like  accusations  were  made  against 
our  Lord.  The  Pharisees  strove  to  make  Him  appear  to 
the  people  as  a  truckler  to  the  Romans,  whilst  to  the  Ro- 
mans He  was  accused  of  plotting  to  be  king.  The  psalmist 
does  not  propose  to  make  any  reply  to  these  accusations 
made  by  his  eneimes,  or  to  engage  in  any  counter-plotting. 
His  hands  and  heart  are  full  of  other  business.  "Precepts" 
is  the  law  as  assigning  work  to  do.  The  expression  may 
cast  light  back  upon  the  first  clause.  The  accusations  may 
have  been  a  misconstruction  of  some  activity  of  Solomon's, 
for  he  could  not  escape  slander  whatever  course  he  took. 
If  he  held  himself  aloof  from  all  business,  he  was  inert  and 
wanting  in  capacity.  If  he  made  himself  at  all  busy,  he 
was  an  intriguer.  The  response  he  makes  is  to  go  right 
forward  with  his  work,  doing  what  his  hand  found  to  do 
with  all  his  might.  Best  and  sufficient  answer  for  every 
child  of  God  to  make  to  slanders  which  are  inevitable,  what- 
ever he  does  or  doct  not  do.  Wisdom  is  always  justified 
of  her  children. 

Verse  70.  "Fat  as  grease  is  their  heart;  I  (in)  Thy 
law  delight." 

Alexander  says:  "The  connection  of  the  clauses  lies 
in  the  figurative  use  of  the  word  "fat"  to  denote  spiritual 
insensibility."  The  only  place  in  the  Old  Testament  where 
"fat"  is  used  directly  in  this  way  is  Is.  6:  10.  The  word 
in  the  other  places  when  used  figuratively,  denotes  not  so 


Eeto*  jFre&euck  JLa  Eue  King     275 

much  the  spiritual  insensibility  induced  by  a  satiation  with 
good  things,  as  the  evil  feelings  enkindled  by  prosperity.  It 
is  connected  with  apostacy,  Deut.  31  :  20,  Rebellion,  Job, 
15:  27,  Deut.  32:  15;  Nek  9:  25;  1st  Samuel  2:  29, 
Pride,  Ps.  17:10,  73:  7,  Is.  10:  16.  And  here  the  persons 
whose  heart  is  said  to  be  "fat"  are  called  in  verse  69  proud. 
Thus,  although  spiritual  insensibility  is  involved  in  the  state- 
ment and  perhaps  implied,  still  the  verse  is  mainly  a  contrast 
between  the  loftiness  of  these  men  and  the  lowliness  of 
the  psalmist.  It  was  pride  that  especially  opposed  the 
Davidic  cult,  which  was  only  the  Mosaic  cult  conserved, 
and  developed.  Doubtless  the  service  in  itself  was  a  humb- 
ling one.  It  was  for  sinners,  and  besides  the  new  cult- 
center  appointed  by  God  at  the  threashing  floor  of  Arannah 
the  Jebusite  humbled  their  tribal  pride.  And  here  we  have 
the  force  of  the  verse.  These  "fat"  ones  are  satiated  and 
satisfied — lofty  of  spirit;  they  feel  rich  and  increased  in 
goods  like  the  church  of  Laodicea.  They  can  conceive 
of  no  enjoyment  out  of  themselves.  They  value  themselves, 
upon  what  they  have  and  hold.  They  do  not  know  what 
it  is  to  have  nothing  and  yet  possess  all  things.  The  psalm- 
ist is  poor  in  spirit,  lowly,  delights  in  obedience  to  the 
worship  prescribed  by  God,  is  a  sinner,  feels  the  need  of. 
the  remedies  of  the  law,  delights  in  the  promises  of  the  law, 
and  hopes  for  the  glory  of  Israel  through  the  law. 

Verse  71.  "It  is  good  for  me  that  I  was  made  to 
suffer  to  the  end  that  I  might  learn  Thy  statutes." 

It  is  one  of  the  greatest  comforts  of  Christians  under- 
trial  to  realize  that  it  subserves  their  present  good.  This,, 
however,  may  not  always  be,  one  often  has  to  wait  a  long 
time  before  he  sees  any  good  resulting  to  himself;  faith  is 
then  severely  tried.  It  is  not  so  with  the  psalmist;  and  it  is 
noticeable  that  the  good  that  he  owns  as  conferred  through 
suffering  is  the  knowledge  of  God's  statutes.  Instruction 
is  one  of  the  main  ends  subserved  by  trial.      The  direcJt 


276  Selected  psalms  ano  ©onopap&s 

effect  of  pain  and  sorrow  upon  the  child  of  God  is  to  con- 
centrate his  attention  upon  his  highest  interests.  God  is 
often  so  successfully  rivalled  by  worldly  things,  that  a  little 
suffering,  giving  a  distaste  for  many  allurements,  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  labor  saving  expedient  in  the  work  of  sanctifi- 
cation.  Just  as  a  master  will  stimulate  the  slow  mind  of  a 
child  sometimes  by  a  sharp  tone  or  a  threat  not  in  anger 
but  to  assist  the  child,  so  God  helps  to  a  knowledge  of 
His  will  by  removing  those  things  that  obscure  the  mental 
and  moral  sight.  Pleasures  that  have  usurped  the  name  of 
duty  and  duty  to  God  fall  dead  as  withered  leaves,  and 
only  eternal  obligation  remains.  Then  there  is  the  bringing 
down  of  the  proud  will  by  suffering,  effected  perhaps,  imme- 
diately. Then  there  is  the  intimation  sometimes  conveyed 
by  the  trial  that  one  is  going  wrong,  this  recalls  the  man 
to  himself.  Then  God  never  melts  the  will  more  effectually 
than  by  His  blessed  ministries  to  us  in  the  valley  of  humilia- 
tion. The  willing  soul  can  learn,  but  the  proud  soul  never 
reads  the  open  secret. 

Verse  72.  "Good  for  me  is  the  law  of  Thy  mouth 
(more)  than  thousands  of  gold  and  silver." 

This  comparison  of  sacred  things  to  gold  and  silver 
is  peculiarly  eastern.  Gold  and  silver  were  of  great  im- 
portance to  them.  It  is  a  child-like  simile,  although  it  may 
have  reference  to  the  peculiar  temptation  by  which  the 
young  Solomon  was  assailed.  It  was  the  shadow  of  a 
crown  that  was  held  out  to  him,  and  with  royal  dignity 
was  associated,  especially  in  those  days,  royal  wealth.  And 
that  something  like  royal  wealth  was  meant  is  slightly  in- 
dicated by  the  vague  but  significant  phrase,  "thousands  of 
silver."  "The  law  of  Thy  mouth"  may  mean  generally 
"Thy  commands."  But  the  word  used  is  one  peculiarly 
employed  for  the  proper  cult  of  the  Jews.  We  should  also 
note  that  the  Mosaic  cult  was  said  to  have  been  spoken  by 
word  of  mouth  to  Moses  by  God.     The  whole  force  of 


Rett,  JF reDetick  JLa  Rue  ding     277 

the  verse  may  be  this.  Better  than  vast  wealth  and  the 
power  that  comes  from  it,  are  the  ordinances  which  teach 
us  how  to  approach  Thee  and  find  grace  and  favor,  es- 
pecially since  they  were  delivered  to  us  directly  by  Thee." 

YODH. 

Verse  73.  "Thy  hands  made  me  and  fashioned  me; 
make  me  understand  and  let  me  learn  Thy  commandments." 

Alexander  seems  to  understand  this  merely  as  a  similie. 
"As  I  owe  my  existence  to  Thy  power,  so  too,  I  rely  upon 
Thy  grace  for  spiritual  illumination."  There  must  be 
more  than  this  in  it.  The  first  clause  may  be  understood  as 
giving  the  reason  why  his  petition  should  be  answered.  The 
Creator  may  well  be  expected  to  take  care  of  His  creation. 
He  that  made  the  machine  may  be  expected  to  guide  it.  He 
who  made  man  what  he  is  may  well  be  exepcted  to  grant 
those  commandments  (law  directive)  that  shall  guide  him 
in  his  actions.  The  second  verb  means  to  establish  and  also 
to  set  in  order.  It  is  well  rendered  by  "fashioned."  The 
clause  may  mean,  "Thou  hast  made  me  a  man  and  hast 
given  me  a  peculiar  constitution,  as  an  individual."  The 
expression,  "Thy  hand"  draws  attention  not  so  much  to 
God's  power  as  His  contrivance,  and  connects  the  psalm- 
ist's frame  closely  with  God.  This  is  heightened  by  the 
second  verb. 

The  force  of  the  whole  is  about  this:  "Thou  hast 
made  me,  therefore  Thou  understandest  me.  Thou  knowest 
what  is  suited  to  me.  The  creator  is  one  with  the  lawgiver; 
the  law  is  one  with  the  constitution  of  man.  Make  me  to 
understand  and  learn  thoroughly  Thy  commandments,  and 
then  I  will  act  in  harmony  with  my  whole  being." 

Verse  74.  "Thy  fearers  shall  see  me  and  rejoice; 
for  in  Thy  word  have  I  hoped." 

This  evidently  is  the  language  of  one  whose  experi- 
ence is  well  known.     It  is  one  of  the  verses  that  indicate 


278  ^electeo  psalm*  anD  aponograp&s: 

the  high  station  of  the  psalmist.  "They  shall  rejoice  in 
my  case  as  a  new  proof  that  they,  who  trust  in  God,  can- 
not be  disappointed." — Alexander.  It  means  this,  and 
more.  The  rejoicing  would  indicate  a  sharing  in  the  pre- 
vious trouble  and  present  deliverance.  This  is  not  merely 
a  fellow-feeling  because  he  and  they  are  alike  servants  of 
God.  There  must  be  something  more  than  inference  here. 
Alexander  refers  to  Psalm  34:  2.  But  the  impression  is 
irresistible  that  there  the  rejoicing  of  "the  humble"  is  not 
because  of  an  inference  from  his  case  to  theirs  but  because 
their  cause  is  the  same. 

Suppose  Solomon  to  be  the  author  of  this  psalm,  and 
we  can  easily  see  that  the  true  fearers  of  the  Lord  would 
rejoice  in  his  success  as  their  own.  His  pretensions  to  the 
crown  were  in  the  direct  line  of  the  complete  development 
of  the  theocracy  and  his  ascension  of  the  throne  would 
secure  their  prosperity  and  triumph.  The  pious  young 
prince  may  be  engaging  here  that  he  will  see  to  it  that  God 
gets  the  glory,  and  that,  by  this  means,  encouragement  will 
be  given  to  those  who  fear  the  Lord  and  who,  besides, 
shall  then  be  rewarded.  Whether  this  psalm  was  written 
by  Solomon  or  for  Solomon,  it  is  the  reflex  of  his  lofty  posi- 
tion and  high  hopes.  And  none  the  less  does  it  become 
an  humble  child  of  God  in  these  days,  who  is  called  by 
a  nobler  name  than  son  of  David,  and  has  a  more  affec- 
tionate appellation  than  Jedidiah — beloved  of  the  Lord, 
who  has  secured  to  him  not  merely  by  God's  promise,  but 
by  His  oath,  a  throne  grander  than  the  throne  to  which 
Solomon  aspired.  He,  too,  can  feel  that  he  is  not  alone 
in  his  longings  and  prayers,  that  his  welfare  is  knitted  up 
with  the  welfare  of  the  great  family  of  God,  the  body  of 
Christ.  Not  only  is  their  triumph  his,  but  his  triumph  is 
theirs.  For  that  "multitude  that  no  man  can  number" 
would  never  be  able  to  stand  before  God  ascribing  their 
salvation  to   Him,   if  only   one,   the  humblest  of  all  who 


Rett*  jFreDerick  Jta  Ifttie  King     279 

have  laid  hold  of  Christ,  should  fail  to  be  there.  The  sal- 
vation of  the  Lord  Himself  is  no  more  necessary  to  His 
church  than  is  the  salvation  of  the  lowliest  one  who  trusts 
in   Him. 

Verse  75.  "I  know  Jehovah,  that  righteous  are  Thy 
judgments  and  (in)  faithfulness  Thou  hast  afflicted  me  (or 
made   me   suffer)". 

Here,  as  ever  in  the  psalm,  Jehovah — the  covenant 
God,  is  addressed — an  affectionate  title  used  by  the  psalm- 
ist even  when  he  would  be  naturally  tempted  to  impatience. 

"Judgments"  here  cannot  possibly  be  law.  They 
must  be  judicial  decisions  issuing  in  acts  of  chastisements. 
There  is  not  in  this  place  any  of  the  feeling  of  one  despair- 
ing or  thinking  that  God  is  against  him.  And  yet  there  is 
something  of  punishment  in  His  chastisements.  Trials  are 
hard  to  bear,  and  yet  a  consciousness  that  suffering  is  un- 
deserved, helps  to  support.  There  is  something  noble  and 
dignified  in  the  position  of  one  who  endures  wrong  patiently. 
But  the  psalmist  has  not  that  support.  He  acknowledges 
(what  is  very  hard  to  acknowledge)  that  he  has  deserved 
the  infliction.  The  trial  is  a  judgment  upon  him,  and  a 
righteous  judgment.  This  he  scruples  not  to  say,  though 
there  might  have  been  a  great  deal  of  injustice  on  the  part 
of  men  mixed  up  with  it.  Every  event  is  complex;  the 
sufferer  is  not  wholly  at  fault  nor  is  he  wholly  innocent.  In 
trial  of  this  kind  it  is  a  gracious  sign  to  dwell  not  on  one's 
innocence,  but  one's  ill  desert.  From  the  plural  being  used, 
it  may  be  indicated  that  it  required  a  course  of  chastisement 
to  bring  the  psalmist  to  himself.  The  plural,  however,  may 
be  used  to  express  the  conclusion  to  which  he  had  come 
from  considering  his  individual  experience.  He  is  able  to  see 
that  not  only  this  affliction  from  which  he  has  suffered,  is 
consistent  with  God's  righteousness,  but  also,  that  all  God's 
judgments  are  righteous.  And,  painful  as  it  is,  there  is 
some  relief  in  knowing  that  what  we  suffer  is  by  a  judicial 


280  ©elected  Psalms  and  flionogtap&g 

decision  of  a  righteous  God.  For  then  we  at  least  are  not 
the  sport  of  reasonless  nature  or  of  men.  God  has  not  for- 
gotten us;  that  thought,  the  most  dreadful  that  can  enter  the 
mind,  is  banished.  Our  pains  are  not  wasted  if  they  are 
punishment.  And  then  we  have  a  right  to  remember  that, 
if  God  punishes,  He  also  pardons. 

But  the  psalmist  has  a  right  to  a  pleasanter  thought 
than  this.  He  is  able  to  see  that  in  this  judgment  which 
has  fallen  upon  him,  God  has  been  not  merely  just,  but 
faithful  to  His  promises.  This  is  well  put  in  the  second 
clause.  They  who  first  acknowledge  their  ill  desert  in  their 
afflictions  may  then  have  the  comfort  of  seeing  and  acknow- 
ledging that  they  are  not  merely  just  pains  and  penalties, 
but  also  a  means  which  God  uses  to  fulfil  to  them  His 
precious  promises.  Christians  often  fail  of  this  comfort  be- 
caue  they  fail  to  acknowledge  their  sin — not  sin  in  general, 
that  is  not  hard,  but  sin  in  the  specific  matter  in  which 
they  are  troubled.  The  way  to  peace  is  through  brambles. 
Let  Christians  note  that  all  God's  promises  may  be  summed 
up  in  one  word — redemption — and  that  until  they  are  per- 
fectly redeemed  they  may  expect  to  find  sin  present  in  them 
in  every  trial.  Now  the  very  care  and  beginning  of  redemp- 
tion is  the  renovation  of  the  heart,  and  that  needs,  for  the 
most  part,  chastisement  and  discipline,  which,  though  they 
cannot  plant  new  impulses,  yet  avail  to  bring  renovation 
within  the  sphere  of  the  will  and  intelligence,  and  thus 
help  to  make  a  man  not  only  innocent  but  holy. 

Verse  76.  "O  that  Thy  loving-kindness  might  be  for 
my  comfort,  according  to  Thy  word  (saying)  to  Thy 
servant." 

We  lose  the  force  of  the  preceding  verse  if  we  do  not 
consider  it  a  preparation  for  the  petition  in  this.  Here  lies 
the  force  of  the  expression  "I  know."  It  is  as  if  he  had 
said,  "I  am  well  aware;  I  keep  in  mind  that  my  present  trial 
is  not  only  just  but  for  my  benefit,  and  yet  (verse  76)  rO, 


EetK  jFreHerick  La  Eue  &ins     281 

that  Thy  loving-kindness,"  etc.  Justice  is  one  thing; 
faithfulness  is  quite  another  since  it  can  only  be  for  those 
who  can  claim  the  promises.  But  God  can  be  a  just  judge 
and  a  faithful  promiser,  and  yet  deal  very  strictly  and 
severely  with  His  children.  A  faithful  surgeon  may  give 
a  great  deal  of  pain.  But  they  who  acknowledge  the  jus- 
tice and  faithfulness  of  God  may  pray  for  something  dif- 
ferent from  either  of  these,  even  God's  loving-kindness. 
God  is  not  like  the  applier  of  earthly  remedies,  who  can. 
perhaps,  sugar-coat  a  pill  or  sweeten  a  bitter  medicine,  but 
whose  power  goes  only  a  little  way  in  making  pleasant 
what  is  needed  to  heal.  He  can,  if  He  sees  best,  bring 
the  soul,  in  spite  of  many  trespasses,  home  to  Himself  by 
pleasant  paths.  His  children  must  believe  that  God  cannot 
be  bound  to  any  one  course  of  procedure,  that  the  resources 
of  His  contriving  love  are  so  great  that  He  has  the  choice 
among  an  infinite  variety  of  means,  to  produce  a  given  effect. 
It  is  not  sufficient  to  acknowledge  His  justice  and  faithful- 
ness. Many  do  so,  and  then  settle  themselves  down  to 
endure  the  hard  discipline  under  which  justice  and  faithful- 
ness bring  them,  when  they  should  remember  that  God's 
loving-kindness  is  as  dear  to  Him  as  His  Justice  and  faith- 
fulness, and  that  His  dealings  are  not  made  perfect  until  they 
manifest  that  also,  not  only  to  the  believer  but  to  all  around. 
God's  loving-kindness  is  always  present  in  His  dealings  with 
His  children,  but  it  is  not  always  manifest.  Many  a  parent 
in  love,  makes  his  child  to  suffer  pain.  The  child  of  God 
may  realize  this  through  faith;  but  faith  should  go  farther 
than  this,  and  pray  that  God,  in  the  strict  exercise  of  His 
justice  and  faithfulness  should  still  make  His  dealings  pleas- 
ant to  us.  We  must  not  make  up  our  minds  to  rest  in  our 
evil  case  and  endure,  but  lay  hold  of  God,  the  author  of  all 
change,  in  whom  is  infinite  hope.  We  should  be  quiet 
in  nothing  but  God,  and  acknowledge  the  sway  of  any 
painfulness  or  deprivation,  no,  not  for  a  single  moment.  We 
should  pray  for  relief  with  all  confession  and  thanksgiving, 


282  ©elected  Psalms  and  e@onograp!)$ 

and  with  submission  to  God's  will.  Let  not  the  sufferer  say, 
"it  will  be  of  no  avail."  He  will  get  by  it,  at  least,  God. 
Whatever  he  may  be  denied,  he  will  have  the  essence  of 
his  petition.  God  is  waiting  in  many  cases,  for  just  this 
prayer,  which  so  honors  His  omnipotence,  working  by  love. 
The  psalmist  asks  that  God's  loving-kindness  may  be  for  his 
"comfort"  not  only,  as  we  are  to  understand,  by  giving  him 
relief  from  distress,  but  by  bringing  God  near  in  communion 
with  Him,  through  that  very  relief.  God  gives  Himself  in 
His  gifts.  The  last  clause  reveals  the  spiritual  limitations 
under  which  the  whole  psalm  was  written.  It  is  not  as  a 
son,  but  as  a  servant,  that  the  psalmist  approaches  God.  It 
is  not  in  reliance  on  God  Himself,  but  on  His  promise, 
at  the  same  time  it  honors  the  promise,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  including  in  it  not  only  the  happiness  at  the  end,  but 
comfort  and  pleasure  by  the  way. 

Verse  77.  "Let  Thy  compassions  come  unto  me  (or 
upon  me)  and  I  shall  live,  for  Thy  law  (is)  my  delight." 

In  the  preceding  verse  Alexander  translates  by 
"mercy"  Loving-kindness  is  better,  since  "mercy"  implies 
ill  desert,  and  there  is  no  ill  desert  implied  in  the  word  as  it 
is  generally  used.  The  psalmist  is  at  peace  with  God, 
feels  that  he  is  in  the  hands  of  a  loving  Father,  whose 
dealings  with  him  are  just  and  faithful.  He  does  not  desire 
kind  dealings  on  the  part  of  God,  for  he  knows  that  God's 
present  dealings  with  him  are  kind;  it  is  pleasant  dealings 
that  he  desires.  This  view  is  strengthened  by  the  plural 
(compassions)  used  here.  The  psalmist  does  not  ask  that 
God  should  entertain  a  feeling  of  compassion  towards  him; 
that  he  may  be  secure  of,  while  yet  asking  for  acts  of  com- 
passion— manifestations  of  compassion  that  will  be  intelli- 
gible to  his  sore  heart.  "Take  pains,"  he  asks  "to  make 
the  working  out  of  Thy  faithful  purpose  pleasant  to  me." 
It  is  as  if  a  surgeon  should  be  asked  to  give  as  little  pain  as 
possible.     Only  in  the  case  of  a  surgeon,  he  is  bound  to  do 


I&eto*  jFreDericfe  La  Hue  i&ing     283 

this — no  proper  end  could  be  subserved  by  giving  pain  that 
could  be  avoided.  But  with  God  the  case  is  different. 
There  may  be  reasons  why  He  should  make  the  fulfilling  of 
His  promise  exquisitely  painful  to  His  servant,  but,  never- 
theless, we  may  pray  that  it  may  be  otherwise.  It  was  to 
this  infinite  power  and  contrivance  of  God  that  our  Saviour 
made  appeal  when  He  said,  "if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup 
pass  from  me."  Not  for  one  moment  did  our  Lord  shrink 
from  the  discharge  of  His  office  as  Saviour,  but  He  asked 
that  God  might  find  out  a  way  by  which  He  might  dis- 
charge the  office  and  yet  avoid  the  agony.  Well  might  the 
Sinless  One  pray  for  that;  but,  it  is  permitted,  even  to  one 
suffering  under  deserved  chastisement  (as  here  the  Psalmist) 
to  pray,  "Let  Thy  compassions  come  unto  me,  and  I  shall 
live."  If  we  consider  that  he  has  (verse  75)  declared  that 
he  regards  the  very  terrors  and  trials  that  he  has  gone 
through  as  the  means  God  takes  to  fulfil  His  promises,  and 
(verse  76)  asks  that  God's  loving-kindness  may  be  for  his 
comfort,  here  we  must  interpret  "that  I  may  live,"  not  as 
referring  to  the  preservation  of  his  natural  life,  but  rather 
to  the  making  of  that  life  full,  free,  rich.  The  psalmist 
does  not  desire  anything  that  would  directly  go  to  make  his 
life  such,  but  only  that  the  pain  and  trouble  which  hinder 
and  mar  the  life  that  is  now  his,  should  be  compassionately 
removed.  That  this  alone  is  necessary  we  see  by  the  second 
clause,  "for  Thy  law  is  my  delight."  The  law — the  cult  of 
Jehovah,  the  ordinances  of  approach  to  God,  and  worship 
in  His  presence;  all  those  symbols  and  ceremonial  that  com- 
fort and  restore,  that  warn  and  enlighten,  indeed,  we  may 
say  all  that  made  the  distinctive  life  of  a  true  Israelite, 
that  is  his  delight,  and  what  is  one's  delight,  that  is  his 
life.  But  life  he  cannot  fully  enjoy  while  God's  chastising 
hand  is  heavy  upon  him,  for  he  asks  that  his  distress  may 
cease  in  order  that  he  may  live.  Like  the  psalmist  in 
Psalm  42,  he  says,  "when  shall  I  come  and  appear  before 
God"?  "for  I  had  gone  with  the  multitude;  I  went  with 


284  Selected  psalm*  aim  aponograpijs 

them  to  the  house  of  God,  with  the  voice  of  joy  and  praise, 
with  a  multitude  that  kept  holy-day."  And  now  he  pleads, 
"Be  gentle  with  me;  let  Thy  hand  rest  lightly  upon  me 
while  Thou  art  working  out  Thy  kind  and  righteous  will, 
and  then,  although  I  am  yet  in  the  house  of  my  sojournings, 
and  have  not  attained,  I  shall  still  have  fulness  of  life,  mo- 
tive for  living  and  scope  for  activity,  for  Thy  law  is  my 
delight — my  multitude  of  pleasures.  It  furnishes  me  with 
occupation,  fills  me  with  joy  and  kindles  all  hope."  We 
cannot  help  thinking  of  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,  who  de- 
parted not  out  of  the  Tabernacle;  or  of  Scipio  Africanus. 
who  in  the  days  of  his  youth  was  such  a  devotee.  "We 
shall  be  satisfied  with  the  abundance  of  Thy  house,"  says 
the  psalmist  (Ps.  65 :  5 )  of  the  waiting  church. 

Verse  78.  "Shamed  be  the  proud,  for  falsely  have 
they  wronged  me;  I  will  muse  of  Thy  precepts." 

At  first  sight  there  seems  to  be  little  or  no  difference 
between  this  verse  and  the  69th  in  both  clauses,  and  so 
there  is,  if  we  look  only  to  the  "doctrine"  involved — if  we 
put  the  screws  to  the  poetical  utterance  to  express  forth 
some  abstract  truth  or  abstract  fact  as  is  usually  done.  The 
proud  are  spoken  of  and  their  falseness,  and  the  psalmist's 
devotion  to  God's  precepts;  but  it  should  be  noticed  that 
the  psalmist's  trouble  in  this  verse  is  different  from  that  in 
verse  69.  There  he  was  calumniated,  here  treacherously 
injured.  The  spirit  is  different.  There  he  made  no  attempt 
to  check  the  tide  of  wrong,  but  quietly  bore  it,  immersing 
himself  in  his  duties;  here  he  feels  stronger,  and  denounces 
shame  on  the  heads  of  the  wrong  doers — shame,  the  most 
galling  thing  to  the  proud  man,  and  that  which  required  the 
greatest  faith  on  his  part  to  ask  for.  There  he  says  that  he 
will  keep  God's  precepts,  here  that  he  will  muse  on  them. 
There  he  gives  the  lie  to  slanders  by  doing  his  duty.  Here 
the  sting  of  treacherous  injury  is  not  keen  enough  to  disturb 
the  calmness  of  his  mind — he  muses  on  God's  precepts,  he 


i&etn  jFrenerick  La  Iftue  J&ittg     285 

meditates  on  the  work  assigned,  plans  and  contrives.  The 
proud  enemies  have  injured  him,  but  they  have  no  power 
to  degrade  him,  to  disturb  the  balance  of  his  mind,  or  for  a 
single  instant  to  prevent  his  complete  absorption  in  the  duties 
God  has  laid  upon  him. 

Verse  79.     "Let  them  return  to  me  that  fear  Thee, 
and  know  Thy  testimonies." 

This  is  one  of  the  verses  that  more  than  hint  that  the 
psalmist  was  of  princely  dignity.  It  implies  that  he  had  a 
following — a  party,  and  that  circumstances  had  discouraged 
them  with  his  prospects.  Now,  favor  with  God  being  re- 
stored, full  of  faith  (verse  75),  and  large  petition  (verses 
76  and  77),  defiant  and  with  a  little  gleam  of  triumph 
(verse  78);  the  feeling  in  this  verse  swells  higher;  and  he 
begins  to  prepare  for  the  future — to  gather  up  his  strength 
for  earthly  contest.  The  paralyzing  night  of  sorrow  has 
passed  away,  activity  begins,  hope  rises  like  a  rosy  dawn 
as  he  looks  for  favor  at  the  hands  of  men  as  well  as  God 
again.  If  we  have  been  correct  in  our  previous  exposition,  the 
psalmist's  trouble  arose  from  the  approach  to  him  of  proud, 
self-seeking  men,  careless  of  God  or  His  worship.  He  has 
had  experience  of  them,  and  now  turns  to  those  who  once 
favored  him,  and,  perhaps  were  discouraged  by  his  very 
coquetting  with  the  ambitious  and  ungodly.  He  turns  to 
them  with  hearty  choice;  with  a  summons,  implying  that  his 
cause  is  their  cause  and  the  cause  of  God;  and  with  a 
petition  to  God  that  He  may  cause  them  to  come,  for  all 
this  is  implied  in  the  words,  "Let  them  return  to  me."  He 
is  not  a  man  to  despise  earthly  strength,  to  fold  his  hands 
when  anything  is  to  be  done  to  further  his  prospects,  but 
he  desires  to  cooperate  now  only  with  those  who  fear  God 
and  know  His  testimonies — understand,  appreciate  and  prac- 
tice them.  Nothing  less  than  that  is  full  knowledge.  He 
would  have  to  do  with  holy  men  alone. 

Verse  80.    "Let  my  heart  be  perfect  in  Thy  statutes, 
to  the  end  that  I  may  not  be  shamed." 


286  ©elected  Psalm*  anD  aicmogtapfm 

This  verse  is  plainly  in  connection.  The  dawn  of  pros- 
perity suggests  the  dangers  of  prosperity  and  the  only  sure 
safeguard.  Not  strong  resolution  to  obey,  not  habit  of 
obedience,  but  devotion  of  the  heart.  And  here  the  title 
used  for  the  law  is  significant.  It  is  "statutes" — the  law  as 
the  expression  of  the  arbitrary  will  of  God.  The  law  in 
any  other  aspect  can  be  liked,  in  this  aspect  only  can  it  be 
loved.  For  the  heart  to  be  perfect  in  God's  statutes  means 
that  it  should  perfectly  love  God  as  commanding;  and  for 
the  heart  to  be  perfect  in  God  as  commanding  is  very  nigh 
to  be  perfect  in  love  to  God.  If  this  had  been  the  state 
of  the  psalmist  before,  he  never  would  have  fallen  under  the 
power  and  the  pain  of  temptation.  That  obedience  which 
is  loving  obedience,  is  quick  to  see — sensitive  as  an  electro- 
meter to  the  slightest  deviation  from  the  path,  and  is  the 
only  thing  that  will  secure  from  shame. 

KAPH. 

Verse  81.  "For  Thy  salvation  has  my  soul  fainted; 
for  Thy  word  have  I  waited." 

In  the  interpretation  of  this  psalm,  two  extremes  are 
to  be  avoided.  It  will  not  do,  with  Hengstenberg  and 
others,  to  deny  all  connection  between  the  verses,  neither  will 
it  do  to  presume  that  the  connection  involves  the  whole  sig- 
nificance of  the  verses.  The  verses,  even  when  most  closely 
connected,  are,  after  all,  independent  utterances.  They  are 
very  often  like  round  pebbles  touching  each  other,  indeed, 
but  only  at  one  point.  And  as  a  general  thing,  connection 
of  feeling  is  to  be  looked  for  rather  than  connection  of 
thought.  And  as  with  the  verses,  so  with  the  stanzas,  only 
in  a  greater  degree.  Indeed,  the  whole  psalm  bears  marks 
of  having  not  been  composed  as  a  whole,  but  made  up  for 
the  most  part  of  isolated  utterances  arranged  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  association  of  feeling  and  sometimes  of  thought.  In 
the  preceding  stanza  there  seemed  to  be  progress  of  feeling — 


Ifteto*  jFreDetick  La  Rue  I&ittg     287 

trouble  and  sorrow  coming  forth  into  something  approaching 
peace  and  triumph.  Here,  the  lyric  ebb  commences.  This 
stanza  presents  the  psalmist  in  the  depths  of  trouble  and 
sorrow.  There  is  something  very  touching  in  the  use  of  the 
preterite — "my  soul  has  fainted,"  "I  have  waited."  Of 
course,  the  present  is  included,  but  the  past  adds  to  the 
burden  of  the  present,  the  fainting  and  the  waiting  have 
been  long.  The  longing  for  God's  salvation  is  expressed  in 
terms  of  the  suffering  arising  from  the  absence  of  it.  It  is  a 
dumb,  inarticulate  petition  like  the  "groaning"  and  the 
"roaring"  spoken  of  in  the  psalms  more  than  once;  and  there 
is  something  comforting  in  the  thought  that  such  agonies 
constitute  an  appeal  to  God  that  is  heard — God  hears  the 
voice  of  our  "roaring."  Many  are  the  times  when  fainting 
and  longing  are  so  mingled  that  the  soul  hardly  knows 
whether  it  prays  or  not.  Let  it  take  comfort,  at  any  rate, 
God  hears  its  moaning.  More  especially  can  it  do  so  when 
it  can  say,  "for  Thy  salvation  my  soul  has  fainted";  when 
all  other  forms  of  satisfaction  fail  to  satisfy,  when  putting 
aside  all  other  promises  and  offers  it  waits  for  the  fulfilment 
of  the  Word  of  the  Great  God.  Then  its  very  trials  and 
sorrows  redound  so  much  to  God's  glory  to  the  blessing  of 
others  and  itself  through  that  very  glorifying,  that  we  can 
easily  see  how  God  can  make  the  soul  wait  and  faint 
while  earning  greater  blessedness  when  the  happy  change 
comes.  He  does  not  faint;  his  soul  only  faints.  There 
is  no  giving  up  on  his  part,  but  still  he  goes  through  great 
suffering. 

Comparing  with  the  correlative  clause,  we  note  that 
"word"  can  mean  here  promise  alone.  Also  we  see  that 
the  experience  of  the  first  clause  is  not  one  merely  due  to 
the  discomforts  and  pains  owing  to  the  absence  of  God's 
salvation.  It  is  suffering  also,  and,  perhaps  mainly  arising 
from  the  expectations  roused  by  the  promise.  Had  he  not 
been  led  to  hope  for  salvation,  he  could  have  put  up  with 
his  present  situation  better.     But  the  desire  awakened  and 


288  Selected  Psalms  and  ®onogtap&0 

the  confidence  inspired  make  possible  an  acute  form  of 
suffering,  and  that  is  an  evidence  of  trust  in  God,  and  may 
well  bring  to  him  deliverance. 

Verse  82.  "Mine  eyes  have  failed  for  Thy  saying, 
so  that  I  say,  when  wilt  Thou  comfort  me." 

The  first  clause  may  have  reference  to  the  injury  pro- 
duced by  weeping;  but  it  more  probably  means  the  dim- 
ness of  sight  caused  by  long  and  eager  gazing.  Intense 
scrutiny,  even  without  any  emotion,  will  of  itself,  prevent 
sight,  a  fact  well  known  to  astronomers.  Combined  with 
emotion  and  its  wearying,  disheartening  effects,  producing 
languor  and  inertness,  it  might  well  make  the  eyes  fail.  The 
correlative  clause  strengthens  this  view.  The  very  form 
of  the  expression  "so  that  I  said,"  an  infinitive  with  a  prepo- 
sition, implies  that  it  but  expresses  in  another  form  the 
failing  of  the  eyes.  My  eyes,  at  first  eagerly  intent,  have 
become  dim  and  listless,  they  gaze  without  beholding,  they 
look  without  seeing,  so  that  they  say  for  me  what  my  dis- 
couraged heart  feels,  "when  wilt  Thou  comfort  me."  This 
question  is  the  utterance  of  a  hope  that  is  almost  dying  down 
into  despair. 

Verse  83.  "For  I  have  been  like  a  bottle  in  the 
smoke,  Thy  statutes  have  I  not  forgotten." 

The  bottle  of  skin  used  in  the  East  would  be  service- 
able only  when  soft  and  flexible.  An  empty  bottle  hung 
up  amid  the  smoke  and  heat  of  a  chimney  would  shrivel  and 
blacken,  and  become  stiff,  ugly  and  useless.  To  a  like  state 
has  the  psalmist  been  reduced — to  shame,  ignominy,  pain, 
sorrow  and  impotence.  Alexander  says:  "The  meaning  of 
the  last  clause  is,  that,  notwithstanding  these  afflictions,  the 
sufferer  has  not  forgotten  God's  commandments." 

This  remark  is  correct,  but  fails  to  bring  out  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  clause.  It  seems  to  be  a  true  correlation. 
His  not  forgetting  God's  statutes  was  the  very  cause  of 
his  trouble.     He  might  have  had  an  easy  time  if  he  had 


Rein  ^Frederick  JLa  Rue  Utfng     289 

forgotten  them.  It  was  his  adherence  to  God's  statutes  that 
placed  him  in  this  situation  of  ignominy  and  pain. 

This  verse  may  not  be  interpreted  independently  of 
the  others  in  the  stanza;  and  the  whole  stanza  sets  forth  a 
servant  of  God,  unjustly  treated  by  God's  enemies.  Now, 
if  we  interpret  strictly  according  to  the  correlation,  not  only 
in  this  verse  brought  into  entire  harmony  with  the  others, 
but  the  latter  clause  furnishes  the  most  weighty  consolation 
in  trouble  as  well  as  the  most  potent  pleading  for  deliverance 
from  it.  When  we  can  feel  that  we  are  reproached  for 
the  name  of  Christ,  happy  are  we,  says  the  apostle,  and  well 
may  our  petitioning  grow  in  strength  into  a  claim — a  wrest- 
ling for  release. 

One  thing  he  has,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  trouble;  he 
knows  just  what  is  required  of  him,  for  he  says,  "Thy  stat- 
utes have  I  not  forgotten."  He  has  no  doubt  as  to  what 
he  is  to  do  or  what  endure,  or  who  gives  the  command. 
But  his  obedience  brings  him  into  great  distress — he  is 
misconceived,  misrepresented,  hated,  opposed,  ridiculed,  in- 
jured, because  he  does  that  which  is  at  the  same  time 
agony  (perhaps)  for  him  to  do.  He  is  like  a  bottle  in  the 
smoke,  just  as  our  Lord  was — despised  and  rejected  of 
men.  And  his  only  support  it  may  well  be  is  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  is  only  doing  God's  will.  For  he  is  obeying 
"statutes,"  "orders,"  and  may  not  see  the  reason  for  them. 
He  may  wonder  why  he  is  required  to  do  what  is  plainly 
laid  upon  him.  Such  a  wonder  lies  very  near  to  a  dread 
temptation.  But  he  suffers  not  himself  to  shrink  back;  by 
main  force  he  drags  himself  to  his  dreaded  task  an  astonish- 
ment to  himself  as  well  as  as  to  those  around  him.  God's 
order  to  him  may  have  come  through  circumstances,  or 
through  men,  that  may  make  it  thrice  as  bitter  and  hard. 
So  it  was  not  with  our  Lord,  who  knew  from  the  beginning, 
that  He  was  required  to  die,  but  from  that  He  shrank 
back  with  unutterable  loathing  and  dread.  He,  too,  was 
obeying   "orders"   and   His   obedience   made   Him   like   a 


290  Selected  Psalms  and  sponograpfrs 

bottle  in  the  smoke,  changed  the  shouts  of  "Hosanna"  to 
"Crucify." 

Verse  84.  "How  many  (are)  the  days  of  Thy  ser- 
vant? When  wilt  Thou  execute  upon  my  persecutors,  judg- 
ment?" 

"The  shortness  of  life  is  urged  as  an  argument  for 
speedy  action." — Alexander.  This,  of  course,  is  possible. 
The  interrogative  may  really  signify  a  negative  as  in  2nd 
Samuel  19:  34,  and  it  also  yields  a  good  sense,  a  ready 
sense.  There  is  some  objection,  however,  to  this  interpreta- 
tion. There  is  a  touch  of  wrong  about  this  sense  that  is 
suitable  to  a  reply.  Barzillai  uses  this  expression  as  ironical 
and  in  reply  to  what  has  gone  before.  The  psalm  is  too 
earnest  and  direct  for  this.  Only  as  a  repjy  can  any  reason 
be  assigned  why  the  psalmist  should  not  have  written,  "How 
few  are  the  days."  But  the  great  objection  is  that  it  des- 
troys the  correllation.  There  would  be,  indeed,  some  rela- 
tion between  the  clauses;  great  trouble  may  remind  a  man 
that  he  has  few  days  to  see  good  in  and  make  him  impa- 
tient for  deliverance;  but  this  does  not  amount  to  a  true 
corelation  in  which  the  latter  clause  adds  to  the  former  by 
limiting  it.  It  seems  better  to  take  "how  many"  in  its  nat- 
ural sense.  The  effect  of  trouble  upon  the  mind  is  to  make 
the  days  appear  long  and  many.  "How  long"  is  an  oft 
repeated  exclamation  in  the  psalms.  Then  the  sense  of  the 
passage  would  be  nearly  this:  "How  many  of  these  weari- 
some days  of  service  are  to  be  required  of  me?"  "How 
many,"  in  this  sense  may  be  taken  in  two  ways:  First,  as  a 
question;  second,  as  simply  a  form  of  stating  that  they  are 
many.  How  many  are  the  days  of  task  and  trial  allotted  to 
me,  when  will  they  have  an  end?"  The  writer  of  this 
psalm  is  evidently  a  young  man,  and  as  such  would  not  be 
likely  to  think  of  the  shortness  of  his  life,  but  would  be 
likely  to  regard  his  days  of  painful  service  as  long  and  many. 
The  sense  that  we  have  established,  for,  "how  many"  ren- 
ders the  verse  a  perfect  correlation.     The  first  clause  ex- 


Rett.  jFteDerick  La  Eue  i&ing     291 

presses  the  weariness  and  disgust  of  the  psalmist  in  his  ser- 
vice, and  the  second  states  the  cause  of  it.  He  is  persecuted 
in  it;  he  is  persecuted  because  of  it.  But  there  is  no  vin- 
dictiveness  in  his  exclamation  against  his  persecutors.  He 
appeals  to  God's  righteousness  as  Judge.  He  "gives  place 
unto  wrath,"  remembering  that  judgment  is  God's,  and  He 
will  repay.  The  latter  clause  is  half  despairing,  but  only 
half.     Hope  is  present,  even  while  he  desponds. 

Verse  85.  "Proud  (men)  dig  pits  for  me  which 
(are)   not  according  to  Thy  law." 

There  are  two  ways  of  translating  this  verse.  The 
relative  may  be  either  "which"  or  "who,"  may  be  made  to 
refer  either  to  the  "pits"  or  to  the  "proud."  In  the  one 
case  it  would  mean  that  the  making  of  snares  for  him  to  be 
caught  in  is  not  in  accordance  with  God's  law.  This  is  a 
good  meaning.  Giving  the  word  "law"  the  sense  used 
throughout  the  exposition — the  Mosaic  Cult — we  would 
have  here  a  reference  to  the  precepts  that  inculcated  the  kind 
and  fair  treatment  of  one's  fellows  of  the  Hebrew  race  and 
nation.  The  mere  laying  of  a  trap,  is  not,  in  itself,  contrary 
to  God's  law.  A  trap  may  be  laid  to  catch  a  rogue,  of 
which  he  would  have  no  right  to  complain.  But  there  are 
malicious  snares,  true  temptations,  for  the  purpose  of  ruining 
an  enemy — a  neighbor  whom  they  are  bound  to  love.  The 
word  "proud'  not  only  indicates  who  it  is  who  set  the 
snares,  but  what  kind  of  snares  they  set.  But  what  kind 
of  snares  would  the  "proud"  dig?  Bad  men  are  apt  to 
suspect  in  another,  their  own  characteristic  sin.  They  are 
very  apt  to  lay  at  another's  door,  falsely,  their  own  sin. 
And  nothing  would  be  so  readily  suggested  as  a  trap  to 
set  for  another  as  that  to  which  their  own  evil  desire  prompts 
them.  So  the  Pharisees,  who  at  heart  hated  the  Roman 
domination  and  would  gladly  have  been  rid  of  it,  yet  tried 
to  trap  our  Lord  into  a  false  position  with  the  empire  and 
make  Him  out  a  rebel,  and  all  because  their  pride  of  power, 
and  place,  and  heart  was  humbled  by  the  mission  of  our 


292  Selected  psalms  attD  ®onograp&s; 

Saviour  to  men.  In  the  case  of  the  young  Solomon,  we 
may  suppose  that  these  snares  were  intended  to  put  him  in 
the  position  of  opposing  the  great  Davidic  movement,  politi- 
cal and  ecclesiastical,  which  must  have  been  exceedingly 
hated  by  the  proud  tribal  aristocracy.  This  view  may  con- 
nect this  stanza  with  the  three  preceding.  The  temptation 
and  sinful  straying  from  which  we  theic  have  his  return 
and  conversion,  may  have  consisted  in  an  advance  made  to 
him  by  the  "proud"  party,  which  was  not  sincere,  but 
mainly  intended  for  a  trap,  which  he  now  sees  through. 
This  thing  is  not  without  its  parallel  in  the  experience  of 
God's  children  nowadays.  The  invitation  to  worldly  con- 
formity has  often  for  its  object  merely  the  ruin  of  the 
tempted  one.  It  is  like  Balaam's  temptation  of  Israel 
through  the  Midianites.  It  is  the  readiest  way  to  spike  a 
Christian's  guns,  to  destroy  the  force  of  his  example,  and  to 
put  out  the  light  that  he  is  holding  forth  in  this  dark  world. 
But  "which"  of  the  second  clause,  may  be  rendered  "who," 
then  the  clause  would  describe  the  "proud."  It  may  be 
regarded  as  a  meiosis;  "not  according  to  Thy  law"  would 
mean  "opposed  to,  adversaries  of."  This  translation,  which 
Maurer,  Conant  and  Barnes  prefer,  seems  to  bring  this  verse 
more  into  harmony  with  the  rest,  makes  it  easier  to  interpret, 
gives  a  richer  meaning,  and  confirms  the  previous  exposition 
as  to  the  character  and  aims  of  these  "pioud"  persons.  It 
may  be  that  the  equivoque  is  used  here,  and  that  the  rela- 
tive may  be  either  "which"  or  "who." 

Verse  86.  "All  Thy  commandments  (are)  faith- 
fulness; falsely  do  they  persecute  me;  help  Thou  me." 

Giving  "commandments"  its  usual  meaning  of  the  law 
as  directive,  we  have  this  meaning  for  the  first  clause.  All 
that  which  Thou  hast  commanded  for  my  guidance  is  cal- 
culated to  guide  me  aright.  The  implication  is  that  he 
has  followed  this  guidance.  If  this  were  not  true,  there 
would  be  no  correllation  between  the  clauses.  It  is  also 
implied   in   "falsely   do   they   persecute   me."      The   word 


Rett*  JFreOerick  La  IRue  Eing     293 

translated  "pursue"  is  generally  rendered  "persecute,"  but 
there  is  nothing  in  the  bare  word  to  imply  wrongful  treat- 
ment, as  the  word  persecute  does.  And  yet  persecution  it 
was  in  fact.  Often  the  wickedest  acts  of  persecution  are 
those  veiled  in  the  fair  forms  of  orderly  and  sincere  accusa- 
tion. The  first  clause,  then,  declares  the  perfect  confidence 
of  the  psalmist  in  God's  guidance.  God  is  faithful  to  the 
promise  implied  in  everything  he  enjoins.  The  second 
clause  asserts  that  their  pursuit  of  him  is  a  sham.  First, 
because  it  is  made  treacherously  under  false  pretences  of 
zeal  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Second,  a  sham,  because 
based  upon  false  allegations,  his  real  offense  with  them  being 
his  adherence  to  duty  and  his  obedience  tc  the  command- 
ments of  God;  third,  it  is  a  sham  because  God's  command- 
ments are  faithful  and  will  guide  him  to  a  good  and  happy 
issue,  and  all  that  his  enemies  can  do  against  him  will  be 
"in  vain";  which  last  translation  is  fully  wai ranted,  falsehood 
having,  in  Hebrew,  often  an  objective,  as  well  as  subjective 
sense,  as  in  English,  weak  ice  that  appears  strong,  may  be 
called  "deceitful."  The  third  clause  shows  how  full  and 
rounded  is  the  psalmist's  experience,  indeed,  can  only  be 
maintained  by  another  kind  of  prayer — the  prayer  of  specific 
position;  otherwise  the  prayer  of  silence  is  apt  to  degenerate 
into  stoicism  or  a  confidence  in  a  fixed  state  of  things,  which 
though  established  by  God  is  very  far  from  God  Himself. 
That  only  is  true  bliss,  when  the  heart  is  fixed,  and  confi- 
dent, and  calm,  through  rapport  with  an  Almighty  Person, 
with  whom  we  are  face  to  face.  The  psalmist,  therefore, 
does  not  keep  silence,  but  cries  out  for  help  to  God.  Note, 
too,  that  he  asks  help  against  those  who  persecute  him — help 
now.  His  confidence  in  God's  faithfulness  has  done  more 
than  assure  him  as  to  the  far  off  issue,  it  has  set  him  face 
to  face  with  a  loving  Father,  and  he  knows  that  God  not 
only  regards  the  grand  result  but  will,  if  it  may  be,  smooth 
every  step  of  the  way  of  His  trusting  children  towards  it. 
Sometimes  it  may  not  be,  as  in  the  case  of  our  Lord's 
prayer  in  the  Garden. 


294  Selected  Psalms  and  ^onogtaplxs 

Verse  87.  "They  have  almost  consumed  me  in  the 
land,  and  I  have  not  forsaken  Thy  precepts." 

Maurer  translates  "  destroyed  down  to  the  ground," 
that  is  "utterly."  Other  versions  "in  the  earth"  equivalent 
to  "off  the  face  of  the  earth."  Alexander's  is  best.  The 
sense  seems  to  be  that  even  in  the  land  of  promise  he  is  in 
danger.  "They  have  made  almost  every  place  in  the  land 
a  place  of  peril  for  me."  According  to  this,  David  would 
be  quite  consumed  in  the  land  when  he  was  driven  out  of  it, 
and  his  son  and  promised  successor  may  well  have  felt  at 
times  that  the  "land"  was  no  resting  place  for  him.  "And" 
is  equivalent  to  "and  yet."  The  correlation  implies  that  it 
was  his  keeping  of  God's  precepts — his  steady  adherence 
to  the  work  given  him  to  do,  that  caused  him  to  be  "almost 
consumed."  Alexander  gives  the  verbs  an  aorist  significa- 
tion, but  the  lyric  force  is  best  preserved  by  the  perfect  defi- 
nite. The  latter  clause  must  not  be  considered  as  the  bald 
statement  of  a  fact,  but  has  all  the  force  of  a  resolve,  "I 
have  not,"  "I  do  not,"  "I  will  not."  Many  children  of 
God,  especially  in  the  past,  could  make  these  words  their 
own.  The  church  has,  since  Pentecost,  been  the  "land" — 
the  home  of  God's  people,  and  many  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy,  have  found  the  church,  to  them,  as  a  fiery 
furnace,  and  all  because  they  were  faithful  to  their  God. 

Verse  88.  "According  to  Thy  loving  kindness  quick- 
en me,  and  I  will  keep  the  testimonies  of  Thy  mouth." 

The  appeal  to  God's  word  of  promise  so  often  made 
does  not  exclude  the  simple  reliance  on  His  loving  kindness 
Indeed,  be  it  noted  that  that  reliance  on  God  which  is 
merely  dependence  on  His  promise  is  insufficient.  There 
is  a  reliance  on  God's  promise  which  is  accompanied  by 
aversion  from  God  Himself.  This  was  seen  in  the  Jews 
who  rejected  Christ.  Our  reliance  must  be  on  the  promise 
as  rooted  in  the  infinite  love  of  God.  And  our  reliance  on 
God's  love  will  be  vain  if  it  is  not  reliance  on  God  Himself 
— if  it  does  not  embrace  His  other  attributes  as  His  wisdom 


Eetn  jFre&ettck  JLa  I&ue  Ifting     295 

and  justice,  as  well  as  His  far  reaching  purposes  with  refer- 
ence to  others  besides  ourselves.  Indeed,  there  must  be 
rapport  with  God,  for  any  true  reliance  on  God.  To  be 
merely  told,  though  even  in  the  Bible,  that  God  loves  us  is 
not  enough,  we  must  have  that  love  revealed  in  us.  We 
must  have  enlightened  love  for  God,  for  the  heart  has  eyes 
as  well  as  the  head  (Eph.  1  :  18). 

A  sense  of  ill-desert  is  very  apt  to  make  a  child  of 
God  rely  on  His  nature  rather  than  His  promise.  For  a 
promise  of  God  is,  in  some  sense,  a  covenant,  these  are 
conditions  to  be  fulfilled.  And  it  is  when  the  soul  feels 
that  it  has  failed  in  its  part  of  the  covenant  and  cannot  claim 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  that  it  turns  from  the  promise 
to  that  which  the  promise  reveals,  to  the  infinite  love — to 
God  Himself.  Then  it  finds  that  He  who  "will  by  no 
means  dear  the  guilty"  is  the  same  God  who  "forgiveth 
iniquity,  transgression  and  sin."  The  sinner  who  dare  not 
claim  the  promise  dares  lay  claim  to  God  Himself,  and 
is  able  to  cry  out,  "Thou  art  my  hiding  place,"  "Quicken 
me,"  "Give  me  life,"  "Save  my  life'';  this  sense  is  suitable 
to  the  case  of  the  psalmist  almost  consumed  in  the  "land." 

"Quicken"  may  mean  "add  to  my  spiritual  life," 
"rouse  up  my  soul  to  higher  activity."  This  suits  the  case 
of  every  child  of  God  everywhere.  The  last  clause  may 
be  considered  as  the  psalmist's  part  in  a  covenant;  "save  me 
and  I  will  keep";  or  as  a  condition  necessary,  "save  me 
in  order  that  I  may  keep";  or  as  the  response  of  love,  "man- 
ifest Thy  loving-kindness  to  me,  and  I  will  manifest  my  love 
for  Thee."  The  expression,  "testimony  of  Thy  mouth," 
suits  this  interpretation.  The  reference  is  to  the  law  of  the 
ten  commandments  delivered  on  Sinai  by  word  of  mouth. 
"Thy  mouth,"  not  only  points  to  this,  but  indicates  the 
character  of  the  obedience — it  is  a  personal  devotion  to 
God — it  is  not  obedience  to  the  law  of  righteousness,  but  to 
the  word  uttered  by  God. 


296  Selected  psalms  anO  Qiottograpjjg 

LAMED. 

Verse  89.  "To  eternity,  Jehova,  Thy  word  is 
settled  in  heaven." 

The  Heavens  not  only  exhibit  the  word  of  promise 
(Ps.XIX),  but  have  it  inwrought  into  their  very  consti- 
tution. Their  order  and  beauty  as  well  as  their  beneficient 
ministry  to  men  arising  out  of  their  structure  and  nature,  is 
a  partial  realization  of  the  promise.  And  this  is  the  case 
"forever";  the  hand  that  God  has  laid  upon  chaos  He  will 
never  take  back;  what  He  has  done  towards  making  His 
universe  perfect,  He  will  never  allow  to  be  undone. 

Verse  90.  "To  generation  and  generation  (is)  Thy 
faithfulness;  Thou  hast  fixed  the  earth  and  it  stands." 

Faithfulness  to  His  word  of  promise  is  manifested  by 
the  stability  of  the  dry  land  that  rose  out  of  the  waters  of 
chaos  and  by  the  permanence  of  those  natural  laws  that 
make  the  earth  a  secure  dwelling  place  for  man,  and  a 
minister  to  his  wants.  This  is  "unto  all  generations" — the 
farthest  future  of  the  earth  will  but  exhibit  and  realize,  more 
and  more  fully  the  promise  of  God. 

Verse  91.  "For  Thy  judgments  they  stand  today, 
for  all  are  Thy  servants." 

God's  "judgments"  often  minister  to  the  fulfilment  of 
His  promises.  The  Canaanites  were  cast  out  that  the  child- 
ren of  Israel  might  have  a  home.  The  Jews  were  rejected 
that  the  gospel  might  be  preached  to  the  gentiles,  and  An- 
tichrist is  to  be  destroyed  in  the  day  of  our  Lord's  coming 
that  the  church  may  be  delivered.  The  heavens  and  the 
earth  are  here  said  to  be  ministering  servants  to  perform  His 
judgments.  Thus  the  stars  in  their  courses,  the  earth  as  it 
turns  on  its  axis,  or  circles  round  the  sun,  all  influences  from 
above,  all  powers  and  changes  below — the  whole  mighty 
movement  of  the  universe  tends  to  realize  God's  promise, 


I&etu  jFteDetick  La  Eue  ming     297 

especially  because  it  even  tends  to  destroy  wickedness  and 
the  wicked. 

Verse  92.  "Unless  Thy  law  were  my  delight,  then 
should  I  perish  in  my  affliction." 

The  "law"  is  generally  the  scheme  of  salvation  re- 
vealed to  the  Jews.  In  it  the  word  of  promise  was  in- 
wrought. The  saint,  delighting  himself  in  this  law,  has  his 
faith  strengthened  so  that  he  endures,  when,  by  reason  of 
afflictions  arising  from  nature  or  men,  he  is  tempted  to  be- 
lieve the  nature  of  things  is  against  him.  Nature  and  men 
so  near  to  us,  and  so  powerful,  make  for  us  a  strong  temp- 
tation. In  prosperity  we  were  tempted  to  rely  on  them,  and 
in  adversity  to  despair,  because  of  them.  Only  the  constant 
proclamation  of  the  promise  through  the  law  to  the  Jew 
and  through  the  word  and  ordinances  to  the  Christian  can 
keep  us  without  fear. 

Verse  93.  "To  eternity  I  will  not  forget  Thy  pre- 
cepts, for  in  them  hast  Thou  quickened  me." 

Literally  "forever  I  will  not  forget."  The  "word" 
being  wrought  into  the  texture  of  the  universe,  the  precepts 
were  also.  That  is,  they  bear  such  a  relation  to  the  universe 
of  things,  throughout  all  its  duration,  that  no  change  what- 
ever will  destroy  their  significance.  They  are  the  law  of 
the  saint's  life,  the  means  by  which  God  ministers  to  him, 
life;  and  under  the  new  dispensation,  they  are  the  indispen- 
sable condition  of  obtaining  and  holding,  that  which  will 
last  forever, — the  new  life.  Therefore  they  are  to  be  re- 
membered forever. 

Verse  94.  "Thine  am  I,  save  me,  for  Thy  precepts 
I  have  sought." 

The  soul  that  waits  not  for  God's  precepts  to  be 
thundered  in  its  ear,  or  forced  upon  its  notice,  that  does 
not  demand  to  have  them  stated  with  a  severe  exactness, 


298  Selected  psalms  ann  ^onograpfcs 

which  it,  with  severe  exactness,  will  then  obey;  but  seeks, 
searches  for,  and  longs  to  know,  God's  will;  which  runs 
before  all  expression  of  God's  will  in  words,  and  tries  to 
divine  what  God  would  have;  that  soul  has  as  surely  as 
the  heavens  and  earth  the  word  of  promise  made  part  of  its 
very  constitution,  unites  itself  to  the  irresistable  development 
towards  glory  with  which  heaven  and  earth  are  instinct, 
and  in  prayer  for  salvation  with  imperious  wrestling,  lays 
hold  on  God  and  says,  "Thine  am  I." 

Verse  95.  "For  me  have  wicked  (men)  waited  to 
destroy  me;  Thy  testimonies  will  I  understand." 

Destruction  threatens  from  enemies.  The  way  to 
thwart  them  and  deliver  one's  self,  is  not  to  strive  with 
them  or  counterplot,  but  to  turn  the  whole  mind  to  God's 
testimonies  to  understand  them  for  the  purpose  of  obeying 
them.  There  is  safety.  So  surely  do  His  testimonies,  ex- 
pressing His  Character,  while  they  tend  to  make  the  soul 
morally  like  God,  also  tend  to  make  the  soul,  like  God,  in- 
vincible and  indestructable. 

Verse  96.  "To  all  perfection  have  I  seen  an  end; 
(but)   wide  is  Thy  command." 

All  earthly  law  and  custom  is  perfect  only  in  its  place 
and  time.  Tomorrow  the  best  will  be  obsolete  and  even 
foolish,  and  even  today,  carry  it  but  a  few  miles  away  from 
its  place,  and  it  will  become  inapplicable  and  barbarous. 
This  was  especially  so  in  ancient  times.  If  it  is  less  so  at 
the  present  time,  it  is  because  laws  and  customs  are  informed 
with  the  spirit  of  that  "commandment  which  is  exceeding 
broad," — which  is  wide  as  the  universe,  which  is  fitted  to 
the  whole  scope  of  things,  and  to  the  last  syllable  of  the  his- 
tory of  things;  whose  "beams  are  laid  in  music,"  set  to  the 
secret  harmony  by  which  all  things  move;  and  Which,  though 
the  fashion  of  this  world  passes  away,  changes  not  one 
jot  or  tittle.     He  who  holds  to  it  shall  not  be  moved. 


EUto*  jFteUetick  L£  ftue  i&tng     209 

MEM. 

Verse  97.  "How  I  love  Thy  law!  All  the  day  it  is 
my  meditation." 

This  is  the  shrewd  stanza — the  politic  stanza.  Solo- 
mon is  called  to  mind  as  especially  astute  of  all  the  kings 
of  Israel.  This  expression  of  love  for  the  law  and  the  habit 
of  quiet  meditation  upon  it  are  peculiar  to  this  psalm  and 
Psalm  1st.  Very  suited  is  it  to  Solomon's  position,  as  a 
young  intelligent  prince  desiring  activity,  and  yet  shut  out 
from  it.  We  may  well  conceive  the  delight  of  young  Solo- 
mon when  here  he  found  exercise  for  his  faculties,  comfort, 
preparation  for  his  future,  satisfaction  for  his  scientific  mind 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  origin  of  things.  In  these  hours  of 
quiet  meditation  he  found  that  knowledge  of  God's  great 
love  for  the  saint,  and  that  communion  with  God  entered 
into  which  finds  expression  in  the  Song  of  Songs.  And  as 
the  word  "law"  here  signifies  the  whole  of  Mosaic  revela- 
tion of  grace  in  history,  precepts,  instruction,  and  especially 
ritual,  we  may  well  imagine  how  these  quiet  meditations  of 
the  future  builder  of  the  temple  were  filled  with  the  vast 
conceptions  of  a  fuller  and  more  complete  worship,  and  a 
further  revelation  of  grace  to  the  people  through  it.  Per- 
haps even  then  the  thought  came  into  his  mind,  that  he  was 
to  be  in  his  own  royal  person,  a  revelation  and  prophecy  of 
God's  grace  to  men,  a  thought  that  came  to  its  expression 
in  the  72  Psalm. 

Verse  98.  ("More)  than  my  enemies  do  Thy  com- 
mandments make  me  wise;  for  to  eternity  it  is  mine  (or  to 
me)." 

But  specially  does  the  study  of  the  law  delight  his 
shrewd  spirit,  for  it  makes  him  wise  to  act.  His  enemies, 
counting  as  his  enemies  his  ambitious  brethren  and  their  sup- 
porters, doubtless  thought  him  inactive  and  dull  of  mind 
because  he  did  not  intrigue.  But  he  feels  that  he  knows 
better  than  they.  And  then,  (what  is  particularly  intended 
in  this  verse),  he  feels  that  as  far  as  his  enemies'  plans  are 


300  ©elected  psalms  and  £©onograp!)0 

directed  to  ruin  him,  the  best  way  to  thwart  them  is  to 
keep  God's  commandments.  If  he  should  do  as  Absalom 
or  Adonijah,  he  would  break  at  least  the  fifth  command. 
By  adherence  to  the  simple  command  he  would  have  God 
for  him,  and  in  the  end  all  the  power  of  earth.  No  doubt 
but  that  the  holy  behaviour  of  the  young  Solomon  prepared 
the  way  for  the  throne,  not  only  with  his  father,  but  with 
the  people.  The  word  for  commandments,  indicates  God's 
law  as  directing  actions.  In  the  face  of  one's  enemies  there 
is  no  time  to  plan.  If  a  plan  of  action  has  been  made,  it 
cannot  provide  for  all  the  quick  shifting  and  unexpected 
turns  of  the  struggle.  We  need  something  that  will  direct 
unmistakably,  instantaneously  and  strongly  isolated  actions, 
and  yet  have  all  these  actions  consistent.  Now  take  the 
fifth  command,  how  powerful  and  minute  a  director  of 
isolated  actions  must  it  have  been  in  the  case  of  Solomon. 
How  quickly  the  "no"  must  have  come  to  banish  a  snare- 
ful  solicitation  to  do  something  that  would  weaken  his 
father's  authority  and  retard  that  consolidation  of  the  king- 
dom which  so  many  dreaded,  notwithstanding  that  it  would 
be  clothed  with  the  temptation  of  popularity.  Thus  Solo- 
mon would  be  wise,  for  time  in  being  directed  by  God's 
law;  but  the  expression  "to  eternity  they  are  mine."  (Alex- 
ander) would  seem  to  intimate  that  Solomon  took  a  "larger 
view";  forever,  can  hardly  mean  "all  my  life,"  it  may  mean 
my  descendants  shall  sit  upon  the  throne,  (for  the  Sacred 
Scripture  gathers  them  up  in  the  person  of  David;  why 
then  may  they  not  be  in  the  person  of  Solomon?)  it  shall  be 
to  then  perpetually  directive.  Or  it  may  mean  the  results  ot 
my  obedience  last  forever,  either  referring  to  his  being  made 
head  of  an  everlasting  line  of  kings,  or  else  to  his  enjoying 
throughout  eternity  the  fruits  of  his  obedience. 

Verse  99.  "(More)  than  all  my  teachers  I  act  wise- 
ly, for  Thy  testimonies  (are)  a  meditation  to  me." 

"Teachers"  indicates  the  young  man  in  his  pupilage. 
As  I  understand  it,  he  does  not  compare  his  actions  with 


I&eto,  jFteoertck  La  Eue  Mm     301 

theirs,  but  asserts  that  he  acts  more  wisely  than  they  have 
taught  him  to  act,  for  he  has  a  wisdom  higher  than  they 
could  impart.  "More  than  all  my  teachers  I  act  wisely." — 
Alexander.  "Testimonies,"  that  is,  the  moral  law,  and  well 
may  it  be  said  that  knowledge  in  that  law  is  uncommuni- 
cable.  One  must  know  it  for  himself.  No  teaching  can 
enable  one  to  dispense  with  meditation.  Does  not  this  give 
the  lie  to  the  doctrine  of  priestly  authority  in  instruction  and 
does  it  not  teach  the  necessity  of  private  judgment  and  the 
rich  results  of  it? 

Verse  100.  "(More)  than  old  men  I  understand, 
because  Thy  precepts  I  have  kept." 

"More  than  the  ancients,"  or  (Alexander)  "more 
than  old  men,"  that  is,  "I  am  wiser  than  all  the  wisdom 
garnered  in  the  traditions  and  maxims  handed  down  from 
old  times,"  or  "I  am  wiser  than  the  shrewdness  natural  to 
old  age."  "Precepts"  are  the  law  as  it  assigns  work  to  be 
done  by  us.  The  experience  of  the  past  and  the  wisdom 
of  age  are  especially  available  in  the  formation  of  plans  of 
operations.  He  says,  "I  have  not  a  large  experience,  but  I 
I  have  what  is  better."  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that 
Solomon,  born  king  of  men  as  he  was,  meditated  largely 
and  profoundly  upon  the  law  as  it  disclosed  the  political 
institutions  of  Israel,  and  bodied  forth  in  his  constructive 
imagination  from  its  principles  the  political  institutions  of 
his  kingdom  that  was  to  be.  The  wisdom  of  the  Almighty 
as  applied  to  the  problem  of  governing  Israel,  was  his,  in  His 
precepts. 

Verse  101.  "From  every  evil  path  I  refrain  my  feet, 
to  the  intent  that  I  may  keep  Thy  word." 

The  "word"  is  specially  the  word  of  promise  to  him 
that  he  should  be  king  of  Israel — a  promise  not  without  its 
implied  conditions  (2nd  Sam.  7:  12,  16)  and  limitations. 
He  keeps  himself  pure  and  holy  in  order  that  that  promise 
may  be  joyfully  fulfilled  to  him.  And  then  especially,  he 
does  not  attempt  to  advance  himself  by  ways  that  are  sinful 


302  Selected  psalm*  and  egonograp&si 

or  in  themselves  innocent,  are  yet  wrong  because  they  in- 
volve him  with  wicked  men,  or  entangle  him  with  question- 
able plans.  The  word  translated,  "path"  is  strictly 
"direction";  "I  do  not  turn  in  any  evil  direction."  The 
psalmist  does  not  represent  himself  as  walking  in  any  path, 
but  as  it  were  standing  and  resisting  solicitations  on  every 
side  to  evil.  "I  do  not  turn  in  an  evil  direction."  Of 
course,  it  is  not  meant  to  deny  that  more  motives  than  one 
impelled  him  to  this  course,  fear  of  God,  love  to  God,  dis- 
like of  what  is  wrong,  etc.,  but  one  motive  alone  is  presented 
here.  It  is  that  he  may  be  able  to  keep  God's  word — 
the  word  of  His  promise.  Now,  if  we  should  consider  the 
word  translated,  "evil  path"  as  meaning  merely  evil  course 
of  conduct,  it  is  very  wise  in  Solomon  to  act  in  this  way. 
We  not  only  have  no  title  to  the  promises  when  we  deliber- 
ately indulge  in  evil,  but  we  cannot  lay  hold  of  the  promise 
to  the  full  if  we  deliberately  indulge  in  sin.  The  external 
part  of  it  we  may  take  to  ourselves,  but  not  the  promise  in 
its  real  inner  meaning  and  fulness,  thus  a  sinful  man  may  be- 
lieve that  he  is  going  to  Heaven,  but  how  little  of  the 
promise  is  he  expecting.  His  very  sinful  state  prevents  his 
desiring  and  therefore  expecting  what  the  promise  of  heaven 
holds  forth.  He  cannot  keep  God's  "word."  But  the 
word  "orch"  means  "direction,"  and  refers  not  so  much 
to  behaviour  as  to  the  deliberate  aim  and  purpose  of  the 
mind.  Now  then,  if  a  man  aims  at  evil,  he  must  give  up 
the  good  that  the  promise  holds  out  to  him.  And  if  it  be 
said  that  the  good  and  bad  man  aim  alike  at  their  own 
welfare,  it  may  be  said  that  a  choice  of  means  is  in  this  case 
a  choice  of  end;  a  good  thing  may  not  be  sought  in  a  bad 
way.  And  then,  besides,  the  attempt  to  reconcile  evil  aim 
with  the  keeping  hold  of  the  promise  may  be  brought  to  a 
reductio  ad  absurdum  thus.  Every  evil  way  is  walked 
in,  in  reliance  on  our  own  strength,  independent  of  God, 
and  this  makes  it  morally  impossible  for  us  to  trust  in  both, 
we  must  make  our  choice.     The  psalmist  has  made  his. 


IReto.  JFreDericb  La  Eue  fting;     303 

Verse  102.  "From  Thy  judgments  I  do  not  depart, 
because  Thou  guidest  me." 

God's  judgments  which  are,  as  Alexander  well  de- 
fines, "the  external  exhibitions  of  the  divine  righteousness 
by  word  or  deed,  by  precept  or  punishment,"  are  in  the 
psalms,  and  especially  in  this  psalm,  the  deeds  of  divine 
justice.  In  this  verse  it  would  yield  a  good  sense  to  regard 
them  as  the  divine  precepts.  The  sense  would  be:  "I  do 
not  err  in  the  carrying  out  of  Thy  precepts,  for  Thou  dost 
show  me  how,  and  dost  exert  by  providential  arrangements, 
various  influences  upon  me  to  keep  me  in  the  right  path." 
But  there  is  no  good  reason  for  departing  from  the  natural 
and  common  meaning  of  judgments.  Deeds  of  judgment, 
either  punitive  or  justifying,  are  calculated  to  make  a  deep 
impression  on  the  mind.  While  that  impression  is  strong,  a 
man  will  be  likely  to  go  in  accordance  with  it  i.  e.,  avoid 
that  which  brings  down  punishment  and  follow  after  what 
brings  reward.  But  impressions  are  evanescent,  and  the  most 
impressible  men  are  often  those  who  soonest  "depart"  from 
God's  judgments.  But  he  has  not  departed  from  God's 
judgments;  this  he  says,  not  in  self  sufficiency,  for  in  the 
latter  clause  he  attributes  his  constancy  to  God.  "I  have 
perseverance  because  Thou  has  guided  me."  This  may 
refer  to  the  guiding  force  of  the  judgment.  It  opens  the 
eyes,  it  points  out  the  way.  It  not  merely  awakens  feelings 
of  awe,  or  fear,  or  joy;  it  imparts  knowledge.  Sometimes 
the  only  way  that  God  can  take,  apparently,  to  intruct  His 
servants  in  the  path  they  ought  to  walk  in  is  by  judgments 
on  themselves  or  others  (Psalms  19:  11).  It  is  because 
God  has  guided  me  by  His  judgments  that  I  do  not  depart 
from  them.  The  influences  of  His  spirit  are  needed  for 
this  or  else  the  spiritually  stupid  awakened  to  awe,  terror  or 
remorse,  by  God's  judgments,  will  soon  depart  from  them. 
The  spiritually  stupid  may  triumph  in  God's  judgments, 
while  failing  to  make  the  application  to  themselves.  Many 
and  terrible  judgments  could  the  young  Solomon  in  his  se- 


304  ©elected  psalms  ana  ^onograp&s 

elusion  and  tutelage  look  out  upon.  God  guided  him  in 
the  way  of  His  judgments.  These  terrible  and  wondrous 
deeds  searched  out  the  thoughts  of  his  heart,  and  were 
constant  instruction  and  monition  to  him,  because  he  was 
enabled  to  look  upon  them  in  the  light  of  the  Spirit. 

Verse  103.  "How  sweet  to  my  palate  are  Thy  say- 
ings, sweeter  than  honey  to  my  mouth." 

The  word  "sayings"  being  in  the  plural  had  better 
be  interpreted  as  general,  equally — what  God  says,  includ- 
ing all  kinds  of  precepts  and  all  kinds  of  promises.  "The 
passive  form  may  possibly  denote  that  the  psalmist's  relish 
for  God's  word  was  not  a  native,  but  an  acquired  taste." — 
Alexander.  In  Ps.  19:  10,  the  figures  "sweetness"  and 
"honey"  are  used  with  reference  to  the  judgments  of  God. 
We  might  infer  from  this,  that  the  reference  is  here  to 
God's  judgments,  spoken  of  in  the  previous  verse,  as  to  those 
monitions  that  guided  him  in  the  way  of  them.  Accepting 
Alexander's  suggestion,  we  would  have  these  monitions  of 
God,  which  kept  the  psalmist  ever  dwelling  near  God's 
judgments,  filled  with  the  humiliating  sense  of  them,  and 
walking  in  the  humbling  path  of  them,  at  first,  perhaps,  irri- 
tating and  painful,  at  last  become  sweet  "as  honey"  to  his 
mouth. 

Verse  104.  "From  Thy  precepts  I  get  understand- 
ing; therefore  I  hate  every  path  of  falsehood." 

Here  again  appears  the  shrewdness  that  appeared  at 
the  first  to  characterize  Solomon.  "From  Thy  precepts," 
that  is  from  the  law  as  it  assigns  my  work — my  duty  in 
life,  "I  get  understanding/'  that  is,  I  am  made  practically 
wise.  "Path  of  falsehood,"  that  is,  plans  that  are  plausible, 
but  which  must  come  to  naught — impracticable  as  they  are 
wicked.  The  law  guiding  my  life,  makes  me  shrewd  enough 
to  detect  the  emptiness  of  and  loath  every  proposition  that 
would  turn  my  feet  astray. 


Iftetn  jFreDericfe  JLa  Eue  i&tng     305 

NUN. 

Verse  105.  "A  lantern  for  my  foot  is  Thy  word, 
and  a  light  for  my  path." 

The  paralellism  is  here  very  beautiful.  In  the  first 
clause  we  have  the  lamp,  or  lantern  hanging  by  a  cord  near 
the  foot,  as  may  be  seen  now  any  evening  in  Florence.  In 
the  second  clause,  we  have  the  light  illuminating  the  path- 
way. The  word  translated  "path"  means  the  beaten  track. 
There  is  thus  a  perfect  picture  suggested.  There  is  no  ref- 
erence here  to  the  aim  of  the  wayfarer — the  direction  in 
which  he  is  going,  as  e.  g„  in  verses  101  and  104.  It 
rather  refers  to  the  various  details  of  life  that  he  is  conver- 
sant with.  We  may  all  be  walking  in  the  same  direction, 
our  "way"  may  be  the  same,  yet  our  paths  may  be  very 
unlike.  As  position,  means,  and  office  vary,  so  does  the 
"path"  vary,  though  the  way  (derek)  and  the  aim  (orah) 
may  be  the  same.  But  the  same  "word"  (promise)  guides 
all  upon  these  varying  paths.  The  stimulating  power  of 
the  promise  is  manifest,  its  guiding  power  may  not  be  so 
clear.  And  yet  it  is  plain  that  the  soul,  full  of  the  hope  and 
expectation  of  the  glorious  things  that  God  has  promised,  is 
by  that,  made  wise  to  find  its  proper  path.  Its  tastes,  ex- 
pectations and  demands  are  raised  so  high,  that  it  is  keenly 
alive  to  whatever  is  inconsistent  with  their  high  claims,  and 
quick  to  shrink  back  from  anything  which  not  merely  com- 
promises those  claims,  but  which  is  not  consistent  with,  and 
a  partial  realization  of  them.  They  whose  souls  are  filled 
with  these  lofty  hopes  are  led  aright  by  a  kind  of  instinct — 
by  their  very  cravings.  It  is  possible  for  the  immediate  aim 
of  every  day  and  hour  to  be  essentially  one  with  the  great 
final  aim.  The  whole  work  of  the  world  in  all  its  varied 
aspects  may  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  is  assisting  in 
preparing  for  the  coming  of  the  great  King.  Every  mo- 
ment we  may  be  approaching  God,  and  having  some  faint 
foretastes  of  the  final  glory,  at  least  through  faith.  It  is 
not  by  minute  attention  to  details,  and  studious  questioning 


306  ©elected  psalms  anD  a^onogtap&s 

as  to  our  duty  in  the  details  of  conduct.  It  is  not  said 
"Thy  statutes"  or  "Thy  precepts,"  are  "a  lantern,  etc.," 
but  Thy  word  (promise)  that  we  are  best  guided.  Let 
then  the  mind  be  filled  with  eager  desire  to  move  towards 
the  realization  of  the  great  promises,  that  great  aim  will 
dominate  over  all  minor  aims  and  unify  them.  We  will 
walk  upon  a  straight  line  most  surely,  not  by  looking  care- 
fully at  the  line,  but  by  fixing  our  eyes  upon  a  distant  object 
and  walking  towards  that.  The  helmsman  fixing  his  eye 
on  the  distant  harbor  light,  will  with  hardly  a  thought  move 
the  rudder  so  as  to  guide  the  ship.  So  does  the  far  distant 
hope  direct  us  to  the  next  duty.  Many  a  difficult  piece 
of  casuistry  would  be  decided  at  once  if  we  used  the  prom- 
ise instead  of  the  law  as  a  touchstone.  The  last  words  of 
the  verse  do  not  form  a  correllation,  but  a  beautiful  parallel- 
ism and  lifts  this  verse  far  above  the  slavish  spirit  that  reigns 
in  the  hymn  "Lead  Kindly  Light."  The  Christian  who 
is  guided  by  promise  and  not  prescription,  not  only  is  guided 
step  by  step  from  within,  but  may  look  forward  and  around 
by  the  light  of  God's  word  of  promise. 

Verse  106.  "I  have  sworn  and  will  stand  to  it  to 
observe  the  judgments  of  Thy  righteousness." 

The  oath  was  a  very  prominent  religious  observance 
in  the  days  of  the  old  dispensation.  The  Lord  swore  to 
Abraham  (Gen.  15:  17  and  1 8)  and  the  symbolical  act 
of  the  people  ( 1  st  Sam.  7:6)  were  both  of  the  nature  of  an 
oath.  It  pledged  themselves,  risked  all  they  held  dear  upon 
their  fidelity.  It  is  the  very  highest  form  of  resolve  to  do, 
or  the  desire  to  do,  and  of  a  sense  that  which  one  ought 
to  do,  and  of  the  extreme  peril  of  not  doing.  It  is  in  this 
last  point  of  view  that  there  is  a  beautiful  propriety  in  the 
phrase  "judgments  of  Thy  righteousness."  These  "judg- 
ments" are  the  moral  decisions  and  condemnation  of  God 
with  reference  to  sin,  express  or  implied,  in  every  command 
that  He  gives.  If  the  lesson  of  God's  righteous  judgments 
was  learned,  he  would  feel   that  whether  he  pledged  his 


i&eto*  jFreDerick  La  Rue  fting     307 

existence  and  happiness  upon  his  fidelity  or  not,  that  still  it 
was  imperilled  if  he  were  unfaithful.  The  oath  in  that 
case  would  be  a  mere  formal  recognition  that  the  way  of 
the  transgressor  is  hard.  These  words  are  suitable  in  the 
mouth  of  a  prospective  king  who  engages  to  see  to  it  that 
God's  righteous  law  shall  be  respected  and  hardened  trans- 
gressors punished.  It  will  suit  the  ordinary  child  of  God 
who  has,  or  who  is  looking  forward  to  power  or  position 
of  any  kind.  They  engage  him  to  use  that  power  and' 
position,  (and  who  has  not  some)  not  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  low  and  false  judgments  of  this  world,  but  to  carry  out 
God's  decisions  as  to  what  is  right.  The  oath  permitted 
and  even  enjoined  in  the  Old  Dispensation,  is  discouraged 
and  even  forbidden  in  the  New.  Since  the  latter  brings  us 
more  nearly  face  to  face  with  God,  Christians,  constantly  in 
His  presence  need  not  make  a  formal  agreement  with  Him 
that  His  attribute  of  justice  shall  be  exercised  without  mercy 
upon  them,  if  they  are  unfaithful — they  know  it  will.  The 
oath  taken  by  the  servant  of  God  under  the  old  economy 
put  him  into  the  same  position  with  regard  to  God's  punish- 
ments, that  the  spiritual  worship  of  the  new  induces  in  the 
Christian  at  all  times,  with  a  great  difference,  however. 
The  oath  excludes  from  the  sphere  of  mercy.  The  punish- 
ment was  conceived  as  less,  but  it  was  inevitable,  "for  the 
Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless,  who  taketh  His  name  in 
vain."  Whereas  it  is  the  duty  of  a  Christian  to  conceive 
God's  mercy  as  reaching  to  the  measure  of  His  justice.  We 
are  told  however  that  there  is  "a  sin  unto  death." 

Verse  107.  "I  have  been  afflicted  to  extremity; 
Jehovah  quicken  me  according  to  Thy  word." 

The  first  verb  does  not  merely  refer  to  a  mental  state, 
but  includes  the  external  trials  that  tend  to  bring  on  mental 
trouble.  So,  also,  the  second  verb  means  more  than  a 
mental  change,  but  also  an  actual  deliverance  from  danger 
that  threatens  the  psalmist's  life.  The  sense  is,  "I  have 
been   exposed   to   exceedingly   harrowing   trials,   filled  with 


308  Selected  psalms  anD  S@onograp&0 

fear  and  full  of  danger — trials  prolonged  and  increased  till 
they  have  become  more  than  I  can  bear.  He  is  about  to 
sink  under  them  and  calls  out  for  his  life,  "Quicken  me. 
There  is  danger  that  I  die,  Thou  has  promised."  "Man's 
extremity  is  God's  opportunity,  "often  because  only  in  ex- 
tremity will  the  man  turn  to  God.  Only  when  he  sees  no 
help  on  earth  will  he  lift  his  eyes  "to  the  hills."  Christian 
lay  long  in  Giant  Despair's  dungeon  and  suffered  much, 
before  he  pulled  the  golden  key  promise  out  of  his  bosom. 
Blessed  is  this  direct  application  to  God  aside  from  the 
use  of  means.  But  still  more  blessed  is  it,  to  use  means 
in  utter  dependence  on  God.  Indolence  ought  not  to  mas- 
querade as  faith.  Still  when  all  means  fail,  even  though 
through  our  guilty  neglect,  let  us  confess  the  sin,  and 
plead  the  promise  in  sure  hope  that  we  shall  be  heard. 

Verse  1 08.  "The  free  will  offerings  of  my  mouth, 
accept  I  pray  Thee,  O  Jehovah,  and  Thy  judgments  teach 
me." 

Free  will  offerings  are  sacrifices,  neither  prescribed  by 
God  nor  dictated  by  a  sense  of  duty.  They  were  expressive 
of  thankfulness  and  praise  and  devotion,  a  desire  for  God's 
society.  The  private  festivities  of  ancient  Israel  were  gen- 
erally of  this  character.  "Free  will  offerings  of  the  mouth" 
were  spontaneous  utterances  of  thanksgiving  and  praise.  It 
might  seem  to  detract  from  the  spontaneous  character  of 
these  utterances,  that  they  are  called  sacrifices.  And  indeed 
the  expression  is  one  of  the  many  marks  in  this  psalm  that 
indicate  a  lower  tone  of  spirituality  than  the  naive  lyric  out- 
pourings of  David.  But  though  the  tone  is  lower,  it  is 
one  of  true  spirituality  and  the  service  is  doubtless  accept- 
able. We  have  one  here,  whose  impulse  to  praise  and 
thanksgiving  is  not  quite  self-forgetting.  There  is  a  con- 
sciousness that  such  utterances  are  pleasing  to  God  and 
a  tender  desire  to  please  Him  by  them.  And  so  he  takes 
these  praises  and  thanks,  as  it  were  in  his  hands,  and  lifts 
them  up  in  the  very  uttering  of  them  to  God.     The  most 


Hell*  jFreDerick  £a  Rue  King     309 

striking  manifestation  of  this  attitude  of  the  soul  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  in  Hosea  14:  2,  in  the  expression,  "calves 
of  our  lips"  and  of  the  New  Testament  in  Hebrews  13:  15, 
"sacrifice  of  praise — fruit  of  our  lips."  This  calling  of 
devout  utterances,  sacrifices,  was  not  a  mere  figure  of  speech, 
such  speech  was  of  the  very  essence  of  sacrifice,  for  it  was 
the  manifestation  of  devotion  to  God.  The  more  ritual  sac- 
rifice was  not  the  sacrifice  ordained  by  God  as  is  shown  in 
Jer.  7:  22  and  23  in  expressions  amazingly  strong  and 
even  paradoxical.  And  the  verse  is  one  of  the  many  places 
in  the  Old  Testament  in  which  the  gradual  revelation  of  the 
true  nature  of  sacrifices  was  made,  foreshowing  that  time 
when  God,  desiring  no  longer  the  sacrifices  of  beasts,  sent 
Him  on  the  earth  who  became  a  living  sacrifice  and  in 
whom  we  may  all  become  living  sacrifices  and  offer  priestly 
service  to  God  with  the  sum  of  all  our  rational  and  emo- 
tional powers.  Ps.  40 :  6,  7  and  8,  Rom.  12:1.  From 
his  regarding  the  utterance  of  his  praises  and  thanksgivings 
as  sacrifices,  flows  naturally  the  earnest  entreaty,  "accept  I 
pray  Thee,  O  Jehovah."  When  we  offer  anything  to  God 
we  must  consider  whether  it  is  worthy,  and  these  words 
disclose  his  sense  of  inadequacy  and  faultiness  of  his 
praises  and  thanksgivings.  It  is  a  gracious  act  on  the  part 
of  God  to  accept  them.  This  petition  is  enforced  and 
illustrated  by  the  correlative  clause  "teach  me  Thy  judg- 
ments." Some  of  the  most  offensive  things  that  have  ever 
been  offered  to  God  are  praises  and  thanksgivings.  Wit- 
ness the  Te  Deums  for  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholemew, 
and  for  the  auto  de  Fes  that  have  disgraced  Spain.  And 
so  it  is  often  in  the  affairs  of  individual  Christians,  and  the 
church,  God  is  often  praised  and  thanked  for  successes  at- 
tained by  means  that  He  cannot  approve  of.  Well  does 
the  8th  verse  of  this  psalm  say,  "I  will  thank  Thee  with 
rectitude  of  heart  when  I  have  learned  Thy  righteous  judg- 
ments." Our  praises  and  thanksgivings  may  well  halt,  till 
we  have  learned  God's  opinion  of  the  matter.     This  verse 


310  Selected  psalms  ant)  e^onogtapbs 

has  something  for  the  lowly  soul  which  is  sometimes  cast 
down  at  the  thought  that  it  has  so  little  to  offer  to  God. 
Let  such  a  one  remember  that  in  the  50th  Psalm  God^ 
while  speaking  scornfully  of  costly  sacrifices,  which  are 
merely  the  offering  of  slain  beasts,  shows  that  He  does  desire 
and  prize  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving.  Let  him  be  sure 
that  his  praises  and  thanks  inadequate  and  faulty  though 
they  may  be  are  in  God's  sight  precious  and  of  more  worth 
than  the  hecatombs  of  kings. 

Verse  109.  "My  soul  is  in  my  hand  always,  and  (yet) 
Thy  law  have  I  not  forgotten." 

That  is  he  is  always  in  peril  of  death.  There  was 
not  a  moment  of  rest  or  peace.  This  verse  must  not  be 
taken  as  a  mere  setting  forth  of  what  has  been,  a  simple 
narration  of  the  facts  as  regards  his  situation  and  conduct. 
We  must  consider  such  statements  as  we  have  elsewhere 
had  occaion  to  do,  rather  as  a  lofty  profession  and  resolve. 
In  the  midst  of  these  perils  I  have  not  forgotten,  do  not, 
will  not  forget  Thy  law — the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  ap- 
proach, intercourse  and  expiation,  that  thou  hast  ordained 
this  cult  given  in  the  wilderness  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
long  in  abeyance  and  half  forgotten,  was  rapidly  coming  to 
the  fore  under  David,  greatly  to  the  disgust  of  the  tribes 
who  saw  in  it  the  curb  to  their  independence  and  the  down- 
fall of  their  pride.  These  "proud"  ones  must  have  felt  an 
intenser  hate  towards  the  heir  presumptive  as  they  gazed 
upon  the  rising  metropolis  which  was  to  be  his  capital  and 
watched  the  preparations  for  the  temple  he  was  to  build. 
It  was  not  wonderful  if  every  day  should  have  its  peril 
for  him.  Yet  he  says,  "these  dangers  shall  not  preoccupy 
my  mind,  nor  prevent  my  being  drawn  by  the  remembered 
delight,  and  filled  by  a  sense  of  the  beauty  of  the  law.  1' 
shall  not  be  frightened  out  of  acts  of  devotion,  or  the  ad- 
vocacy of  the  great  forward  movement  inaugurated  by  my 
Father."  Alexander  says,  "Yet  Thy  law  I  have  not 
forgotten."     This  is  too  prosaic  and  limits  the  connection 


iftein  iFre&erick  JLa  Eue  ifting     311 

of  the  clauses  to  the  difficulty  of  keeping  the  law  in  remem- 
brance in  times  of  great  and  continued  peril.  It  is  more 
lyric  to  leave  the  connection  vague.  "And,"  should  have 
the  force  of  meanwhile,  and  the  whole  verse  should  set 
forth  not  merely  that  he  adhered  to  the  law  in  spite  of 
danger  that  threatened  him  on  that  account,  but  also  that 
the  law  was  his  comfort  in  the  midst  of  danger  whatever. 
Strictly  analogous  to  this  is  the  case  of  Daniel  calmly  con- 
tinuing his  private  worship,  although  he  knew  the  king's 
decree  had  been  signed,  or  of  the  early  Christians  persisting 
in  assembling  for  prayer  and  praise,  and  the  breaking  of 
bread  in  the  face  of  apalling  dangers  or  of  the  Scotch  Cov- 
enanters, gathering  for  worship  in  the  recesses  of  the  hills, 
and  also  of  any  private  Christian  nowadays,  who,  though 
he  may  not  be  in  danger  of  life,  if  he  boldly  professes  his 
faith,  is  still  in  danger  of  loss. 

Verse  1 1 0.  "Wicked  (men)  have  laid  a  snare  for 
me,  and  yet  from  Thy  precepts  I  have  not  strayed." 

The  snare  may  be  hidden  in  the  path  that  the  psalmist 
treads  the  way  of  God's  precepts,  or  may  be  a  snare  meant 
to  allure  him  from  that  way,  or  a  snare  to  frighten  him 
from  that  way.  But  whether  it  is  a  concealed  danger  or 
an  open  temptation  daunting  or  alluring  the  psalmist  goes 
on  in  the  way  of  God's  precepts,  that  is  the  discharge  of 
the  duties  God  has  assigned  him  for  that  is  the  force  of 
the  word  "precepts."  Here  again  "yet"  is  narrowing  as 
used  by  Alexander  to  connect  the  clauses.  The  psalmist 
walks  in  the  way  of  God's  precepts  not  merely  in  spite  of 
the  snare.  But  finds  in  God's  precepts  the  very  clue  he 
needs  to  guide  him  through  the  labyrinth  of  the  snares 
of  the  wicked.  "They  lay  their  snares  to  catch  me.  1 
hug  myself  with  the  thought,  that  I  have  in  God's  precepts 
that  which  will  ever  deliver."  "Who  is  he  that  will  harm 
you  if  ye  be  followers  of  that  which  is  good."  "That 
through  which  they  seek  to  take  me  is  that  very  thing  which 
makes  me  safe  and  also  secure."     So  Daniel,  by  his  ad- 


312  ©elected  psalms  and  ^onofftap&s 

herence  to  the  law  of  his  Lord  was  delivered,  when  "occa- 
sion" was  found  against  him  "concerning"  the  law  of  his 
Lord.  When  will  Christians  learn  that  m  times  of  danger 
and  perpelxity  the  best  policy  is  simply  to  do  one's  duty. 

Verse  111.  "Thy  testimonies  have  I  taken  as  a  heri- 
tage forever;  for  they  are  the  rejoicing  of  my  heart." 

The  three  stanzas,  Lamed,  Mem  and  Nun,  have  for 
their  special  subject,  the  praise  of  God's  revealed  will  in 
its  aspects  of  prescribing  duty  and  giving  assurance  of  future 
good — precept  and  promise.  This  verse  is  a  strong  ex- 
pression of  regard  for  the  moral  law — God's  testimonies. 
We  still  see  in  it  the  prudence  of  a  man  who  has  regard 
for  his  own  interests  in  the  highest  sense.  He  takes  God's 
testimonies  as  a  valuable  possession.  But  this  is  simply 
the  form,  as  to  substance  the  verse  unmistakably  expresses 
the  deepest  spiritual  sympathy  for  the  commandments,  wit- 
nessing to  God's  holiness  and  prescribed  to  His  creatures 
under  awful  sanctions  and  terrors.  This  is  brought  out 
clearly  by  the  correlative,  limiting  clause,  "for  they  are  the 
rejoicing  of  my  heart."  In  verse  1 4  the  psalmist  rejoices  in 
the  obeying  of  the  commandments  because  it  is  wealth.  It 
is  that  wisdom  whose  price  is  "above  rubies" — invaluable 
for  this  life  as  well  as  that  which  is  to  come.  When  we  put 
together  what  we  escape  by  means  of  it,  and  what  we  gain 
by  means  of  it,  well  may  it  be  said  "man  knoweth  not  the 
price  thereof"  (Job  28:  13).  Here,  God's  testimonies 
which  have  been  enjoined  on  him,  are  not  merely  submitted 
to,  but  regarded  as  a  valuable  possession,  because  they  in 
themselves  delight  him.  And  what  is  more  calculated  to 
excite  joy  in  the  devout  heart  than  the  fact  of  the  imposi- 
tion of  the  moral  law  upon  His  creatures  by  God.  How 
it  enhances  the  dignity  of  man,  when  He,  the  work  of 
whose  fingers  are  the  very  heavens,  "visits"  him  not  merely 
to  do  him  physical  good,  but  to  reveal  His  own  character  to 
its  depths  and  say  to  him,  "Be  like  unto  me."  Consider 
too,  what  a  beneficent  purpose  is  revealed  by  God  in  those 


Eeth  jFte&erick  La  Eue  ding     313 

commands.  His  imposing  them  implies  that  He  would  see 
to  it  that  they  were  obeyed.  He  foresaw  the  inevitable  fail- 
ure to  obey,  and  long  before  the  giving  of  the  law,  gave 
a  promise  that  foreshadowed  all  the  means  and  apparatus  of 
redemption.  Consider  the  laws  of  the  first  table  and  mark 
God's  desire  to  have  man  know  and  love  Him — His  desire 
for  communion  with  Him  on  the  part  of  His  creatures. 
The  very  thought  is  a  fount  of  joy.  Consider  the  laws  of 
the  second  table  and  note  God's  purpose  to  make  this 
world  a  happy  one,  for  happy  would  we  all  be  if  they 
were  kept.  These  ten  "words"  are  ten  joys,  and  joy  is 
more  precious  than  gold  or  lands.  No  wonder  that  the 
psalmist  takes  them  as  his  sole  and  sufficient  possession. 
And  not  for  himelf  alone;  it  is  a  heritage  for  ever.  It  is 
for  his  children  after  him. 

"Our  lips  shall  teach  them  to  our  sons, 
And  they  again  to  theirs, 
That   generations  yet   unborn 
May  teach  them  to  their  heirs." 

Some  things  grow  old  fashioned,  but  God's  testimon- 
ies never,  it  is  a  fashion  forever  exhaustless  by  time  or 
eternity.  If  God's  testimonies  were  a  precious  heritage  to 
the  psalmist  and  are  to  us,  how  precious  our  better  heritage, 
even  He  who  is  God's  testimonies  embodied,  who  is  at 
once  Life,  Law  and  Light  and  who  is  our  eternal  possession 
and  joy. 

Verse  112.  "I  have  inclined  my  heart  to  do  Thy 
statutes  to  eternity,  (even  to)  the  end." 

The  English  word  that  perhaps  best  represents  the 
active  Hebrew  word  that  is  translated  "inclined"  is  "bent." 
"I  have  bent  my  heart  to  do  Thy  statutes."  At  once  we 
feel  that  there  is  something  strange  about  this.  It  is  natural 
to  say  "I  have  bent  myself,"  "I  have  bent  my  energies" 
for  that  means  merely  I  have  guided  my  active  impulses  in 
a  certain  direction.     But  this  statement  of  the  verse  is  quite 


314  Selected  p$alms  ano  ^onograpb0 

different.  Here  the  heart,  the  source  of  active  impulses, 
is  said  to  be  bent.  It  is  as  if  the  volition  got  behind  the 
inclination  and  pushed  it — laid  it  under  constraint,  which 
would  destroy  the  very  nature  of  "inclination."  And  un- 
doubtedly this  cannot  be  directly  done,  the  emotional  nature 
is  not  under  the  control  of  the  conscious  act  of  will.  But 
indirectly  we  have  the  control  of  our  active  powers.  We 
can  bend  our  lazy  energies  upon  any  object,  by  pouring  in 
upon  them,  streams  of  quickening  influence  from  our  living 
heart,  and  so  the  dull  and  lazy  heart  can  be  roused;  how- 
ever dull  and  dead  we  may  be.  We  can  deliberately  place 
ourselves  under  enlightening  and  stimulating  influences.  We 
can  seek  the  society,  we  can  put  ourselves  in  the  way  of 
utterances  that  will  tend  to  rouse  the  sluggish  soul.  But 
especially  is  it  in  the  doing  of  congruous  acts  of  obedience, 
those  acts  that  we  cannot  do  without  another  heart  to  do 
them  with,  in  the  very  doing  of  these  acts,  we  receive  the 
stimulus  necessary  to  the  doing  of  them.  It  must  be  no 
mere  trying  to  do;  that  will  not  bring  the  blessing.  We 
must  actually  will  to  do  and  that,  by  the  very  constitution 
of  our  nature,  we  cannot  do  unless  we  are  conscious  of 
sufficient  power.  And  being  conscious  only  of  our  weak- 
ness, we  can  only  will  to  do  in  the  faith  that  God  will 
work  with  us.  So  it  was  with  the  man  with  the  withered 
hand,  he  willed  in  Christ  to  stretch  forth  his  hand,  and  forth 
it  came.  So  it  was  with  the  palsied  man.  He  must  rise  in 
order  to  be  able  to  rise  and  he  could  not  will  to  rise  without 
the  fullest  confidence  that  He  who  commanded  him  to  rise 
would  enable  him.  This  is  the  paradox  of  faith.  Hart 
says  in  his  matchless  hymn,  that  we  must  go  to  Christ  in 
order  to  get  the  grace  that  is  absolutely  necessary  to  enable 
us  to  go  to  Him. 

"True  belief  and  true  repentence, 
Every  grace  that  brings  us  nigh, 

Without  money 
Come  to  Jesus  Christ  and  buy."  > 


i&eto*  iFreDettck  £a  Hue  Ifting     315 

Let  anyone  in  this  spirit  set  about  stimulating  his  dull 
and  languid  heart.  Though  the  limbs  are  as  lead,  though 
he  does  not  seem  to  desire  what  he  petitions  for,  still  let  him 
set  about  in  faith,  in  Christ,  working  the  works  of  Christ 
and  it  will  end  in  his  being  occupied,  interested,  and  finally 
carried  away.  How  soon  "I  have  bent"  becomes  "I  am 
bent,"  resolve  transforming  itself  into  tendency  and  tendency 
into  passionate  devotion.  The  psalmist  seems  to  have  ar- 
rived at  this.  He  makes  no  chary  resolve.  It  is  not  for  a 
time,  but  forever  that  he  will  serve  God.  The  bondage  is 
to  be  eternal.  He  has  not  merely  bent  his  hands,  his  feet, 
or  his  brain,  but  his  very  heart.  He  is  upheld  by  a  "willing 
spirit"  (Ps.  51:  10).  And  what  but  an  eternal  service 
is  worthy  of  God,  and  what  can  render  any  eternal  service 
tolerable  but  that  devotion  of  the  heart  that  will  make  it 
perfect  freedom. 

"Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 
Nor  iron  bars  a  cage." 

In  taking  God's  testimonies  (moral  law)  for  a  "heritage 
forever"  verse  3,  the  psalmist  is  binding  himself  to  something, 
that  he  approves,  appreciates  and  likes.  For  we  cannot 
keep  the  moral  law  unless  it  comes  home  to  our  sense  of 
justice  and  purity.  But  here  in  binding  himself  to  God's 
arbitrary  commands  (statutes)  he  binds  himself  to  God 
as  His  servant  to  eternity.  This  verse  comes  nearer  to 
David's  expressions  of  devotion  than  any  other.  But  it 
is  not  quite  up  to  them.  It  is  not  God's  loving  one  who 
speaks,  but  God's  devoted  servant. 

We  cannot  but  contrast  this  verse  with  the  prayers 
we  often  hear  in  church  and  prayer  meeting;  which  seem 
well  night  to  disavow  any  responsibility  on  our  part  for  our 
feelings.  "May  we  praise,"  "may  we  pray."  We  need 
to  be  sure,  divine  influence  to  enable  us  to  praise  and  pray 
aright,  but  we  deceive  ourselves  often,  and  fail  to  realize 
that  we  are  responsible  in   a  great  measure  for  the  state 


316  Selected  Psalm*  anD  a^onofftapiw 

of  our  hearts.  We  should  rouse  ourselves  up  to  say  with 
the  psalmist,  "I  have  bent,"  "I  bend,"  "I  will  bend,"  my 
heart  to  do  Thy  statutes  to  eternity. 


SAMECH. 

We  regret  to  say  that  Mr.  King's  work  on  the  eight 
verses  under  this  letter  is  lost,  and  all  die  editor  can  now  do 
is  to  give  his  own  views  in  addition  to  the  invaluable  words 
of  Alexander  which  we  quote. 

Verse  1  1 3.      "Waverers  I  hate,  and  Thy  law  I  love." 

"The  first  word  in  Hebrew  occurs  only  here.  Accord- 
ing to  the  most  probable  etymology,  it  means  men  of  divided 
and  unstable  minds.  See  above,  on  Ps.  12:3,  (2),  and 
compare  James  1  :  8." — Alexander. 

The  variorum  Bible  gives  this  rendering:  "I  hate 
them  that  are  of  a  double  mind." 

Paraphrasing,  we  might  put  the  following  in  the 
mouth  of  the  psalmist.  Jehovah  Thy  law  reveals  Thy  per- 
fections, and  because  perfections  cannot  be  lessened  or  in- 
creased, Thy  law  has,  like  Thyself,  a  rock-like  unswerving 
stability  which  commands  my  admiration  and  love,  and 
through  grace,  in  turn  imparts  to  me  a  measure  of  that 
strength  and  fixedness  of  purpose  like  Thine  own  in  kind. 
Therefore  do  I  hate  the  fickleness  of  the  disobedient,  who  at 
one  moment  commend  Thy  law,  and  the  next  despise  and 
break  it. 

Verse  1  1 4.  "My  hiding  place  and  my  shield  (art) 
Thou — for  Thy  word  I  wait,  i.  e.,  for  the  fulfilment  of  Thy 
promise.  See  above  on  verse  81.  "The  first  word  in  the 
verse  means  properly  a  secret  or  secret  place.  The  shield 
is  a  favorite  figure  for  protection.  See  above  in  Ps.  3:  3, 
7:  10,   18:  2,  30.— Alexander. 

The  common,  intense  exhibition  of  the  sinner's  aliena- 
tion from  God,  is  hiding  from  God's  eye  (Gen.  3:  8  to  10), 
and  shielding  himself  from  His  face  by  calling  upon  the 


Eetn  jFreDerick  JLa  iRue  ifting     317 

rocks  to  fall  on  him.  (Rev.  6:  15,  16).  That  the  psalm- 
ist selected  as  a  hiding  place  and  shield  God  Himself,  shows 
how  well  ripened  in  him  was  the  gracious  process  of  sancti- 
fication.     See  2nd  Sam.  24:  14. 

Verse  115.  "Depart  from  me  evil  doers,  and  I  will 
keep  the  commandments  of  God." 

It  might  be  well  to  ask  if  the  relation  between  the 
two  clauses  of  the  verse  is  that  of  cause  and  effect.  Certain 
it  is  that  our  Lord  with  emphasis  of  sympathetic  love  urged 
His  disciples  to  "Pray  lest  ye  enter  into  temptation."  But 
if  all  things  else  being  equal,  it  is  as  easy  to  obey  God's 
commands  in  the  presence  as  in  the  absence  of  evil  doers,  why 
is  spoken  this  strenuous  warning  injunction  of  Jesus? 

Verse  1 1 6.  "Uphold  me  according  to  Thy  promise 
and  let  me  live,  and  let  me  not  be  ashamed  of  my  hope." 

"Promise  literally  saying,  that  which  Thou  hast  said, 
as  in  verse  82.  'Let  me  live,'  might  also  be  translated  *and 
I  shall  live,'  or  paraphrased  'that  I  may  live."  See  above 
on  verse  1 7.  'Of  my  hope,'  literally  'from  my  hope,' 
which  some  understand  in  a  privative  sense,  'away  from,' 
'deprived  of,'  'without  my  hope,'  i.  e.,  without  having  it  ful- 
filled. 'Ashamed  of  my  hope'  does  not  convey  the  sense  so 
fully  as  'shamed  in  my  hope,'  frustrated,  disappointed,  in 
my  expectations." — Alexander. 

Verse  1  1  7.  "Sustain  me  and  I  shall  be  saved,  and 
I  will  look  to  Thy  statutes  always." 

"The  first  verb  is  nearly  synonymous  with  that  at  the 
beginning  of  verse  1  1 6,  and  the  same  that  occurs  above, 
Ps.  20:  2;  41:  3;  94:  18;  104:15.  'I  shall  be  saved, 
or  let  me  be  saved,'  or  'that  I  may  be  saved,'  precisely  as 
in  the  preceding  verse.  The  strict  future  sense  is  here  to 
be  preferred,  as  the  verb  is  not  both  preceded  and  followed 
by  a  prayer,  as  in  the  other  case." — Alexander. 

Look  to — for  dependence. 

Verse  1 1 8.  "Thou  despisest  all  (those)  straying 
from  Thy  statutes,  for  a  lie  (is)  their  deceit." 


318  Selected  P0alms  anD  ^onogtaptjg 

By  implication  we  find  in  this  verse  three  things. 

First,  Jehovah's  statutes  are  rooted  in  justice  and  truth. 
Second,  Those  who  shrink  from  these  statutes  evidently  pre- 
fer flattering  falsehoods,  and  are  (at  least  in  the  desires  of 
their  hearts)  liars.  Third,  These  liars  are  worthy  of  con- 
tempt for  in  attempting  to  deceive  others,  they  best  succeed 
in  deceiving  themselves,  with  their  own  lie. 

Verse  119.  "(As)  dross  hast  Thou  made  to  cease 
all  the  wicked  of  the  earth;  therefore  I  love  Thy  testimonies.' 

"The  verb  in  the  first  clause,  which  occurs  in  its  prim- 
ary sense  in  Ps.  8:  2,  is  applied  to  purging  out  of  leaven  at 
the  passover.  (Ex.  12:  15)  and  to  the  extirpation  of 
wild  beasts  (Lev.  26:  6)." — Alexander. 

There  is  also  a  reference  in  this  verse  to  the  work  of 
the  refiner  of  silver,  who  separates  the  silver  from  the  dross 
by  subjecting  the  ore  to  a  long  process  of  refining,  first  crush- 
ing it  to  powder,  and  then  the  mass  is  put  into  a  crucible 
and  over  a  hot  fire.  The  dross  is  very  willing  to  escape 
from  the  great  heat,  but  the  precious  metal  is  rather  willing 
to  remain  in  the  crucible  until  it  becomes  so  pure  as  to 
mirror  the  face  of  the  refiner,  who  bends  over  it  in  love. 
Just  so  true  is  it  with  the  wicked  who  are  blind  to  the 
blessings  hidden  under  afflictions,  and  seek  only  to  escape 
from  them.  So  is  it  true  that  "the  sorrow  of  the  world 
worketh  death."  But  saints  know  that  "it  is  good  to  be 
afflicted,"  and  that  every  species  of  trial  is  a  proof  that 
God  loves  us.  Mai.  3:  2  and  4.  Heb.  12:  6,  8  and  11. 
Thou  dost  testify  of  these  things  in  the  Scriptures,  therefore 
I  love  Thy  testimonies. 

Verse  1 20.  "My  flesh  shudders  from  dread  of  Thee, 
and  of  Thy  judgments  I  am  afraid." 

"The  first  verb  in  Hebrew  occurs  only  here,  but  is 
universally  admitted  to  denote  some  bodily  effect  of  fear, 
such  as  trembling,  shuddering,  or  the  instinctive  creeping 
of  the  flesh.     Afraid,  in  the  last  clause,  does  not  fully  rep- 


Eetn  jFreDericfe  La  Eue  ifting     319 

resent  the  phrase  which  denotes  not  mere  apprehension  of 
something  still  future  or  absent,  but  terror  in  view  of  some- 
thing actually  present.  Judgments  has  its  usual  wide  sense, 
but  with  special  reference,  in  this  case,  to  God's  penal  visita- 
tions. Here  ends  the  fifteenth  stanza,  in  which,  as  in  the 
one  before  it,  every  verse  has  a  distinct  initial  word." — 
Alexander. 

There  are  but  few  words  we  wish  to  add  to  this 
valuable  comment. 

In  the  case  of  one  so  godly  as  the  psalmist,  and  whose 
hope  clings  to  God's  mercy,  we  are  not  constrained  to  sup- 
pose that  his  terror  and  creepings  of  flesh,  are  the  result 
wholly  of  a  sense  of  guilt  and  shrinking  from  God  as 
Judge,  which  distresses  the  hearts  of  the  impenitent.  It  is 
rather  permissable  to  conceive  that  these  are  due  to  a  felt 
sense  of  the  near  personal  presence  of  the  infinite,  eternal 
God,  in  the  sublime  majesty  of  His  glorious  attributes,  in 
the  awful  grandeur  of  His  being,  and  in  the  piercing 
strength  of  His  boundless  and  ceaseless  vitality.  Many  of 
the  great  saints  of  our  race,  have  been  so  affected  when 
they  have  perceived,  by  the  senses  of  the  body,  that  they 
were  in  the  actual  presence  of,  and  in  bodily  contact  with 
our  living  Creator  and  God. 

Abraham  (Gen.  15:  12).  "Lo,  an  horror  of  great 
darkness  fell  upon  him."  (18:  27).  "I  am  but  dust  and 
ashes."  Jacob.  (Gen.  28:  17).  "How  dreadful  is 
this  place."  Moses.  (Heb.  12:  21).  "So  terrible  was 
the  sight,  that  Moses  said,  'I  exceedingly  fear  and  quake.' 
David.  (II  Sam.  6:  9).  "And  David  was  afraid  of  the 
Lord  that  day."  Daniel.  (Dan.  10:  8).  "I  was  left 
alone,  and  saw  this  great  vision,  and  there  remained  no 
strength  in  me;  for  my  vigor  was  turned  upon  me  into 
corruption,  and  I  retained  no  strength."  Paul.  (Acts 
9:  6).  "And  he  trembling  and  astonished,  said,  'Lord, 
what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do"?     But  not  only  does 


320  Selected  psalms  ano  9§ono$rap&0 

Jehovah's  awful  majesty  cause  us  to  shudder  in  His  pres- 
ence, it  also  causes  us  to  see  the  depths  of  our  iniquity  with 
self-abhorrence.  (Job  :4  26). — "Wherefore  I  abhor 
myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes." 


AIN. 

Verse    121.      "I   do  justice  and  righteousness;  leave 
me  not  to  my  oppressors." 

The  meaning  is  not  that  he  has  acted  right  and  there- 
fore can  claim  that  God  will  not  desert  him.  There  is  a 
closer  connection  between  the  clauses.  There  is  a  true 
correlation  here,  the  latter  clause  limiting  in  some  degree  the 
former,  and  so  giving  a  hint  as  to  the  character  of  those 
acts  of  justice  and  righteousness  which  he  did.  They  were 
such  as  subjected  him  to  enmity  and  oppression.  These 
words  are  perfectly  suitable  as  referring  to  the  acts  of  a 
private  person,  and  yet  is  there  not  almost  involved  in  the 
words  something  more  than  the  utterance  an  obscure  indi- 
vidual? It  would  seem  that  the  psalmist  was  one  whose 
acts  were  influential  upon  others.  These  words  might  be 
at  least  the  words  of  a  prospective  magistrate,  who  views 
his  private  acts  under  the  aspect  of  a  laying  down  of  prin- 
ciples and  policy.  The  supposition  that  young  Solomon 
was  the  author  of  this  psalm,  harmonizes  the  official  au- 
thoritative air  of  the  first  clause  with  the  state  of  humiliation 
disclosed  in  the  second.  The  form  of  the  first  clause  is 
justified,  when  we  consider  that  these  oppressors  would  not 
care  about  those  acts  of  righteousness  of  Solomon,  which 
were  purely  personal,  but  only  for  those  which  defined  his 
attitude  as  heir  apparent  to  the  crown.  This  verse  is  very 
suitable  for  just  magistrates  and  judges  under  obloquy,  but 
also  for  any  private  Christian  whom  the  pursuance  of  duty 
has  brought  into  trouble.  The  prayer  in  the  latter  clause, 
may  be  made  in  the  strongest  confidence  that  it  will  be 
heard    and    specifically    answered;    and   yet,    at    the    same 


Eetn  jFreDericfe  JLa  i&ue  i&inff     321 

time,  how  easy  is  that  resignation  which  is  the  complement 
of  true  prayer;  since,  if  we  are  called  upon  to  endure,  it  is 
plainly  for  God's  sake — for  the  name  of  Christ  and  there- 
fore to  His  glory.  That  which  inspires  confidence  in  the 
specific  answer,  is  the  very  thing  that  inspires  resignation. 
The  vagueness  of  the  first  clause,  while  it  does  not  disclose 
the  situation  so  manifestly,  and  therefore  lacks  energy,  still 
better  enabled  it  to  be  the  utterance  of  all  the  tried  servants 
of  God  of  all  ages  and  times. 

Verse  122.  "Be  surety  for  Thy  seivant  for  good; 
let  not  the  proud  oppress  me." 

The  use  of  the  legal  term  "surety,"  may  have  been 
suggested  to  the  psalmist  by  legal  oppression  with  which  he 
was  threatened — e.  g.  false  accusations,  perhaps  of  treason. 
A  surety  is  one  who  places  himself  voluntarily  in  the  posi- 
tion of  another,  so  that  upon  certain  contingencies  he  shall 
become  the  substitute  of  that  person  and  shall  be  mulcted  in 
the  same  or  equivalent  penalties.  The  primary  meaning  of 
the  Hebrew  word  is,  to  interweave.  The  surety  interweaves 
his  cause  with  his  for  whom  he  is  bound,  so  that  if  he  falls, 
the  surety  falls.  The  surety  pledges  himself.  The  psalmist 
asks  God  to  pledge  Himself  for  him,  so  that  they  shall  alike 
be  involved.  The  word  "servant"  is  significant.  There  is 
in  it  an  implication  of  the  legal  principle,  "what  one  does 
through  another,  he  does  himself."  "I  am  Thy  servant,  and 
as  Thy  servant  and  deputy,  I  do  what  brings  me  in  danger 
of  oppression  by  the  "proud."  There  is  therefore  an  im- 
plied claim — a  demand  that  of  right  God  ought  to  be  surety* 
for  him.  "For  Thy  servant"  is  defined  by  "for  good." 
When  Judah  was  surety  "for  the  lad"  (Gen.  43:  9)  it 
was  for  his  being  brought  back  again.  The  psalmist  asks 
God  to  be  his  surety  "for  good."  That  is,  to  engage  to 
secure  his  good" — his  prosperity,  peace,  deliverance,  or  else 
be  subject  Himself  to  oppression  and  trouble.  The  petition 
is  one  in  which  God  has  placed  Himself  more  than  once 
in  the  oaths  that  He  took  which  were  neither  more  nor  less 


322  ^electeH  P$alm$  anO  Sionograp&s 

than  making  Himself  surety  for  the  fulfilment  of  His  threats 
or  promises.  He  was  surety  for  the  generation  of  the 
wilderness  for  evil  (Numb.  14:  28),  He  was  surety  for 
Abraham  for  good  (Gen.  22:  16  and  17).  "Be  surety 
for  Thy  servant  for  good"  is  then  equivalent  to  "be  surety 
for  Thy  servant's  good."  The  latter  clause  defines  the 
nature  of  the  good  God  is  asked  to  pledge  Himself  to 
secure.  The  designation  of  the  oppressors  of  the  psalmist 
as  "the  proud"  points  very  distinctly  to  the  time  we  have 
fixed  upon  for  the  composition  of  this  psalm.  For  never 
before  did  pride  so  stand  in  the  way  of  spiritual  and  national 
advancement  as  in  the  days  of  David,  and  never  afterwards 
till  David's  antitype  came.  It  was  pride  more  than  any- 
thing else  that  opposed  our  Lord.  And  that  which  the 
psalmist  here  asks,  was  granted  to  the  fullest  extent.  The 
Lord  was  surety  for  His  people,  became  involved  in  the 
same  condemnation,  and  in  order  that  "the  proud"  might 
not  oppress  us,  He  was  Himself  oppressed.  He  entered 
into  an  engagement  with  Abraham  to  die  or  fulfil  His  prom- 
ise to  Him,  and,  seeing  that  there  was  no  other  way,  actually 
suffered  that  death  to  which  symbolically,  and  under  the 
guise  of  smoking  furnace  and  a  burning  lamp,  He  had  be- 
come subject  so  many  ages  before. 

Verse  1 23.  "My  eyes  fail  for  Thy  salvation,  and 
for  the  word  of  Thy  righteousness." 

This  verse  is  very  like  the  82nd.  There  is  in  both 
the  same  agonized  weary  longing,  but  in  verse  82  it  is 
well  nigh  despair.  Here  it  is  very  far  from  that,  but  rather 
the  longing  of  one  who  boldly  claims.  There  is  a  difference 
too,  in  the  object  of  the  longing.  In  verse  82  it  is  for  the 
fulfilment  of  a  promise;  here  it  is  for  the  good  thing  that 
the  promise  secures.  There  is  a  difference  between  the 
two.  I  may  desire  what  I  have  no  promise  for,  and  I  may 
desire  the  fulfilment  of  a  promise,  not  so  much  for  the 
good  is  uppermost,  and  the  promise  is  mentioned  mainly  on 
account  of  the  binding  claim  it  gives  him  on  God  for  that 


l&etn  jFreDericfe  La  Eue  mm     323 

good.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  word  "righteousness" 
is  so  significantly  added.  The  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
involves  the  righteousness  of  God.  In  verse  82  the  desire 
that  God  would  fulfil  His  promise  is  uppermost.  That  is 
sometimes  more  precious  than  any  good  it  brings.  The 
fulfilment  of  a  promise  by  a  husband  may  be  desired  by  a 
wife,  not  so  much  for  what  it  will  give  her  as  for  his  sake — 
that  he  may  be  found  true  and  noble,  and  that  she  may 
have  assurance  that  she  possesses  him.  Thus  the  servant  of 
God  in  desiring  that  He  should  fulfil  His  promise  is  often 
really  desiring  God's  glory — that  he  and  others  may  be 
enabled  to  honor  God  through  the  clever  display  of  His 
truthfulness  and  faithfulness  and  love.  In  other  words  they 
desire  God  Himself  rather  than  His  gifts.  "Salvation"  is 
a  broad  word,  but  the  latter  clause  limits  it,  the  salvation 
for  which  longing  has  well  night  become  fainting,  is  what 
God  has  specifically  promised;  in  the  case  of  Solomon,  the 
throne,  in  the  case  of  the  ordinary  Christian,  a  greater  prom- 
ise, a  better  throne. 

Verse  1 24.  "Deal  with  Thy  servant  according  to 
Thy  loving  kindness,  and  teach  me  Thy  statutes." 

This  verse  again,  is  very  like  the  64th  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  significant  epithet  "Thy  servant,"  and  that 
in  verse  64  the  mercy  is  inferred,  and  here  it  is  assumed. 
This  makes  the  relation  of  the  clauses  different.  In  verse 
64  the  psalmist  says,  "I  see  abundant  evidence  around  me 
that  Thou  art  a  kind  and  loving  God,  and  that  inclines 
me  to  place  myself  at  Thy  orders."  Here  he  says,  "Since 
Thou  art  a  God  of  loving  kindness,  I  may  make  bold  to 
ask,  yea,  I  may  even  go  so  far  as  to  demand,  that  Thou 
make  a  display  of  that  attribute  by  leaching  me  Thy 
statutes."  The  demand  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  word 
"servant,"  for  is  it  any  more  than  fair  that  a  servant  should 
have  his  orders?  This  demand  God  will  not  disregard; 
He  will  never  leave  a  servant,  desirous  of  doing  His  will, 
without  the  means  of  ascertaining    what  that  will  is.     But 


324  Selected  P$alm0  and  $©oncun:ap[)0 

He  uses  in  His  Providence  many  ways,  and  all  of  them 
righteous.  There  are  some  to  whom  He  teaches  His  will 
through  the  stress  of  trial,  through  painful  self-revelations 
and  mortifications,  every  precept  comes  with  a  pang.  There 
are  those  who  are  left  to  be  in  a  state  of  doubt  and  be- 
wilderment as  to  what  God  would  have  them  do.  Those 
who  are  compelled  to  wait  long  and  go  through  hard  ex- 
perience before  they  get  their  orders,  are  so  treated  often 
because  without  it,  their  obedience  would  be  shallow,  un- 
spiritual  and  mechanical.  By  trial  they  are  not  only  taught 
God's  will,  but  the  secret  of  that  will.  There  are  others 
who  are  shown  what  they  are  to  do  in  quite  another  fashion, 
the  way  of  knowledge  is  made  plain  and  easy  to  them. 
This  is  what  the  psalmist  asks  for — it  is  that  he  may  be 
taught  his  duty  "according  to  God's  loving  kindness."  And 
wondrously  easy  God  can  make  this  learning.  He  may 
place  us  under  the  guidance  of  wise  masters  and  teachers 
in  Christ,  He  may  enlighten  our  minds  that  we  may 
understand  His  word  and  the  leadings  of  His  Providence, 
or  He  may  pour  into  our  hearts  such  an  endowment  of  love 
for  Him  and  our  fellows  as  shall  be  better  than  any  oracle, 
making  us  all  alive  with  eyes  to  see  for  ourselves  what 
God  orders  for  each  moment  as  it  comes.  Well  may  the 
psalmist  regard  it  as  an  act  of  God's  loving  kindness  that 
he  should  be  taught  His  statutes.  Happy  are  the  servants 
of  the  Highest  who  always  know  just  what  to  do — happy 
in  their  loving  service,  and  happy  in  the  assurance  that 
their  labor  is  not  in  vain.  Their  faces  are  towards  the 
dawn  "that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day." 
We  draw  both  warning  and  encouragement  from  this 
prayer  of  the  psalmist.  They  who  are  careless  about 
knowing  God's  will,  or  knowing,  disobey,  are  often  terribly 
chastised  by  having  God's  will  hidden  from  them,  when 
they  grope  like  the  blind,  but  find  not  till  they  repent  and 
He  visits  them  in  mercy  again.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who  are  eager  to  know  God's  will  and  zealous  in  their 


Retn  iFre&ericfe  JLa  Hue  J&ing     325 

obedience,  will  find  it  easier  and  easier  to  understand  the 
word  of  the  Lord  to  them.  Indeed,  He  will  speak  to  them 
no  more  as  He  did  to  the  outside  multitude  of  old,  in 
parables  and  dark  sayings,  but  plainly  as  He  did  to  His 
chosen  ones.  And  in  them  will  be  fulfilled  the  saying, 
"Unto  him  that  hath  shall  be  given." 

Verse  125.  "Thy  servant  am  I;  make  me  under- 
stand and  let  me  know  (or  then  shall  I  know)  Thy  testi- 
monies." 

Maurer  translates  "that  I  may  know  Thy  testimonies." 
Here  the  claim  to  the  knowledge  of  God's  testimonies  is 
distinctly  and  nakedly  based  on  the  fact  that  the  psalmist 
is  God's  servant.  God's  testimonies  are  the  Moral  Law, 
the  witness  to  His  character.  The  servant  may  claim  at 
God's  hand  a  knowledge  of  His  statutes  in  order  that 
he  may  do  what  a  servant  ought  to  do,  and  he  may 
also  rightfully  claim  at  God's  hand  a  knowledge  of  His 
testimonies,  in  order  that  he  may  be  what  a  servant  should 
be.  The  man  is  the  representative  of  His  Master  and 
therefore  should  be  like  Him.  The  claim  that  a  servant 
may  make  for  knowledge  of  God's  law  under  its  various 
aspects  can  be  staled  thus:  "Grant  me  Thy  statutes  that 
I  may  know  Thy  orders,  Thy  precepts,  that  I  may  know 
the  details  of  the  work  assigned  to  me,  Thy  commandments 
that  I  may  know  how  to  do  it  well,  Thy  testimonies  that  I 
may  do  it  holily.  Thy  judgments  that  I  may  have  the 
stimulus  of  fear,  Thy  word  that  I  may  have  the  stimulus 
of  hope,  and  Thy  law  that  I  may  not  despair  on  account  of 
my  faults  and  failures."  (See  Ps.  19:  7).  The  petition, 
"make  me  understand,"  brings  out  clearly  the  nature  of 
God's  "testimonies."  They  are  God's  witness  of  Him- 
self to  man,  and  are  a  witness  just  so  far,  only  as  men 
understand  them  and  feel  their  propriety.  God's  "testi- 
monies"— the  moral  law — may  not  be  obeyed  as  we  obey 
God's  "statutes"  (orders)  simply  by  bending  our  wills  to 
His.     It  would  not  be  pleasing  to  God  for  a  man  to  obey, 


326  Selected  psalm*  and  t^onoctrapfjs 

say  the  first  or  the  sixth  commandment,  simply  because 
it  is  God's  will.  Our  hearts  must  obey — we  must  under- 
stand— or  it  is  no  obedience  at  all.  God's  "testimonies" 
is  that  phase  of  God's  law  under  which  it  must  be  re- 
enacted  by  man,  or  it  is  not  God's  law  to  Him. 

Verse  126.  "(It  is)  time  for  Jehovah  to  do;  they 
make  void  Thy  law." 

There  is  a  propriety  in  calling  on  God  by  His  cove- 
nant title,  Jehovah,  to  act  for  the  law  was  Jehovah's  cove- 
nant with  Israel,  and  if  the  covenant  was  broken,  then  it 
behooved  God  to  come  forward  for  the  honor  of  His 
name.  The  word  "break"  means  more  than  simply 
"transgress."  King  James  and  the  revision  say,  "make 
void,"  which  is  more  nearly  the  word.  There  was  never 
a  time  when  the  law  was  not  transgressed,  but  this  must 
have  been  a  time  when  the  infraction  amounted  to  a  deci- 
sive and  effective  rejection  of  the  covenant.  Such  times 
sometimes  occur,  and  though  the  servants  of  God  are 
often  short-sighted  and  think  that  all  is  lost,  when  there 
would  be  no  danger  were  it  not  for  their  panic  fears,  when 
all  they  have  to  do  to  ensure  safety  is  to  be  calm,  hopeful 
and  active,  still  there  sometimes  comes  a  crisis  when  man 
seems  to  have  done  his  utmost  in  vain,  and  one  more  step 
only  remains  for  wickedness  to  be  impregnably  intrenched, 
and  the  evil  to  become  irremediable.  Then  God's  people 
can  plead  the  necessity  there  is  for  His  direct  action.  Then 
it  becomes  them  to  "stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God."  Such  a  time  seemed  the  present  to  the  psalmist. 
If,  as  we  have  conjectured,  the  young  Solomon  was  the 
author  of  this  psalm,  we  can  easily  conceive  a  situation  of 
affairs  that  might  have  called  forth  this  utterance.  Remem- 
bering that  Solomon  was  the  divinely  appointed  successor 
not  only  to  the  throne  of  David,  but  to  his  plans  and 
theocratic  policy;  remembering  that  the  dread  of  this  policy 
was  upon  many  in  Israel,  and  that  dread  caused  and  made 
virulent    an    opposition    to   Solomon's    succession;    we    can 


Retn  jFre&erick  La  Rue  ftittg     327 

easily  see  with  what  intense  interest  he  would  regard  each 
move  in  the  game.  He  would  naturally  regard  a  success- 
ful combination  against  him  as  aimed  directly  at  the  theo- 
cratic development,  ecclesiastical  and  national,  which  was 
nothing  more  than  the  conserving  of  that  law  whose  full 
form  was  first  attained  under  David.  Whether  the  prayer 
was  answered  or  not  we  cannot  tell.  Probably  it  was. 
Probably  God  did  providentially  intervene  and  check  the 
movement  that  appeared  so  threatening.  But  if  not,  if 
the  case  was  not  so  critical  as  it  seemed,  still  it  was  a 
proper  and  consoling  prayer,  and  doubtless  not  without 
spiritual  fruit  to  him  who  offered  it.  God  regards  our 
prayers  not  in  the  light  of  His  superior  knowledge,  but 
puts  Himself  in  our  place,  as  we  do  in  the  place  of  our 
children;  and  is  ready  to  soothe  even  our  groundless  fears. 
"He  knoweth  our  frame."  Let  not  the  prayer,  however, 
be  made  in  the  spirit  of  presumption — the  spirit  of  Uzzah. 
God  is  all  wise  and  knows  when  to  intervene. 

Verse  127.  "Therefore  I  love  Thy  commandments 
(more)  than  gold  and  (more)   than  fine  gold." 

Alexander  says:  "The  first  word  does  not  refer  to  the 
immediately  preceding  verse,  but  to  the  whole  previous  des- 
cription of  the  excellence  of  God's  commandments." 

This  can  hardly  be.  There  is  nothing  said  directly 
(whatever  may  be  implied)  in  praise  of  any  aspect  of  the 
law  since  verse  105.  And  it  may  be  said  further  that 
very  few  of  the  verses  of  this  psalm  directly  praise  the  law; 
almost  all  of  them  are  simple  expressions  of  devotion  to 
it.  We  cannot  suppose  either,  as  Alexander  does,  that 
the  mere  exigencies  of  the  alphabetical  arrangement  led  to 
the  use  of  the  word.  "Therefore"  in  this  and  the  next 
verse.  The  ingenuity  of  the  writer  was  surely  greater  than 
this.  If  any  connection  can  be  made  with  what  goes 
before,  it  should  be  done.  "Therefore"  implies  some  fact 
set  forth  in  what  goes  before,  because  of  which,  he  is  led  to 
value   God's   commandments.     No   such   fact,    express   or 


328  Selected  psalms  anO  $©onoatap!)0 

implied,  is  set  forth  in  the  stanza  except  in  the  verse  that 
immediately  precedes,  to  which  we  would  naturally  be 
referred  by  the  word  "therefore."  We  find  there  a  peti- 
tion that  God  should  act  directly,  expressed  in  such  strong 
terms  as  to  amount  to  a  claim  that  God  should  act  and  cer- 
tainly involve  the  principle  that  God  will  not  allow  the  wicked 
to  go  too  far,  but  may  be  expected  to  intervene,  and  bring 
to  naught  their  devices  and  their  works.  If  this  is  the 
case,  how  precious  these  commandments,  the  guide  in  life's 
activity.  How  perfectly  secure  may  the  good  man  be 
who  allows  them  to  govern  his  life.  The  opposers  of  the 
good  public  man,  especially,  may  be  using  craft  and  that 
sum  of  all  power,  gold;  but  he  has  something  better  than 
gold — a  guide  better  than  power  or  craft.  The  last  ex- 
pressions of  the  verse  may  be  fairly  held  to  mean  more 
than  vague  expression  of  value  set  forth  in  a  childlike  com- 
parison— at  least,  it  may  possibly  have  a  reference  to  the 
power  of  gold  in  political  affairs. 

Verse  1 28.  "Therefore  all  Thy  precepts  (as  to)  all 
(things)  I  think  right;  every  way  of  falsehood  do  I  hate." 

For  the  same  reason  that  the  commandments  (the  law 
as  guiding)  are  precious,  so  likewise  are  the  precepts  of 
God  (the  law  as  assigning  work)  precious.  The  great 
work  that  had  been  assigned  to  Solomon  in  his  earliest  years 
was  the  work  of  reigning.  His  main  occupation  in  life  was 
getting  ready  to  reign,  and  there  would  be  a  strong  ten- 
dency on  his  part  to  shape  his  actions  so  as  to  ensure  his 
possession  of  the  throne,  and  to  smooth  the  way  to  his 
prosperous  reigning.  But  the  temptation  would  be  also 
strong  to  neglect  those  duties  which  were  for  the  time,  of 
waiting.  The  fear  of  God,  the  dread  that  is  in  him,  when 
he  thinks  how  just  it  would  be  for  God  to  interfere,  and 
how  probably  imminent  the  interference  with  those  who 
break  His  covenant  law,  quickens  his  approval  of  God's 
precepts,  and  stimulates  to  the  performance  of  the  full  round 
of   duty   appointed   him   by   God.      The   word   translated 


Rett*  ^Frederick  La  IRue  Mm     329 

"think  right"  does  not  have  so  much  reference  to  moral  rec- 
titude as  to  their  wise  character.  "Thy  precepts  are  ex- 
cellent, because  in  the  practice  of  them  I  can  think  without 
fear  of  Thy  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation."  The 
correlative  clause  strengthens  this  impression.  A  "way  of 
falsehood"  is  a  way  that  leads  to  falsehood  or  no  result, 
which  promises  great  good  but  ends  in  the  reverse.  God's 
precepts — the  occupations  dictated  by  Him,  lead  to  pros- 
perity and  the  avoidance  of  danger.  Ilie  strong  word 
"hate"  is  not  a  mere  manifestation  of  moral  detestation,  but 
an  expression  of  the  dread  awakened  in  his  mind  by  his 
summons  of  God  in  verse  126,  and  as  a  consequence 
of  a  sense  of  the  danger  those  incur  who  walk 
in  ways  of  falsehood.  They  who  summon  God  on 
their  own  behalf  and  against  others  may  well  remember  that 
God  is  no  partizan,  and  when  He  comes  to  make  inquisi- 
tion He  will  not  neglect  us.  It  would  little  avail  the  psalm- 
ist, if  he  were  guiltless  of  the  sin  of  rejecting  God's  covenant, 
if  he  sinned  in  other  directions,  if  he  were  neglecting  the 
plain  duties  belonging  to  his  waiting  time.  This  lends  great 
significance  to  the  claim  he  makes  that  he  hates,  not  one 
but  every  way  of  falsehood,  and  approves  not  of  one,  but 
of  all  God's  precepts  as  to  all  things.  These  last  two  verses 
are  not  merely  justificatory,  but  declarations  of  adherence 
and  devotion. 

PE. 

Verse  129.  "Wonderful  (are)  Thy  testimonies, 
therefore  my  soul  keepeth  them." 

"Testimonies"  are  the  moral  law.  This  moral  law 
is  wonderful.  To  be  wonderful  it  cannot  be  the  product 
of  human  wisdom  or  fully  explainable  by  human  wisdom. 
A  perfect  system  of  scientific  ethics  is  an  impossibility.  If  it 
were  possible  it  would  not  be  moral,  for  into  all  morality 
must  enter  the  two  elements  of  direct  authority  on  the  part 
of  God  and  unquestioning  obedience  on  the  part  of  man. 


330  Selected  psalms  mm  ^onoatapN 

The  moral  law  must  be  the  product  of  an  intelligence  apart 
from,  and  above  man,  and  yet  akin  to  man,  and  at  once 
appreciable  by  man.  God's  commandment  must  be  "nigh," 
to  be  a  true  commandment,  yet  any  examination  of  it  shows 
its  preternatural  wisdom  and  adds  to  its  sanction.  When  a 
man  gives  himself  rules  that  he  has  thought  out,  it  will 
lack  the  element  of  wonder  and  therefore  the  sanction  that 
a  command  of  God  has.  It  is  the  attitude  of  wondering 
obedience  that  causes  the  law  to  be  kept  by  God's  servant. 
The  habit  of  casuistry  either  as  a  scientific  or  practical  exer- 
cise, tends  to  destroy  the  law.  The  moment  we  begin  to 
consider  whether  what  we  propose  to  do  is  right  or  wrong, 
by  the  light  of  reason  and  not  by  the  light  of  God's  ex- 
pressed will,  that  moment  we  will  begin  to  doubt,  and  the 
further  we  go  in  our  investigations  the  more  doubtful  we 
will  be.  It  is  like  trying  to  discover  by  reasoning,  whether  a 
picture  is  beautiful  or  not.  Law  is  no  law  unless  we  derive 
it  from  an  intuition  which  involves  the  consciousness  of  God 
whether  we  are  aware  of  it  or  not,  or  else  have  it  express 
from  God  and  made  forceful  to  us  by  an  intuition.  Law 
is  no  law  unless  it  comes  from  God,  and  also  comes  to  us 
("the  word  is  nigh  thee").  The  moral  law  of  the  ten 
commandments  if  reverently  studied  will  be  found  wonder- 
ful. The  topics  selected,  the  form  in  which  they  are 
expressed,  so  wonderful  that  a  strict  observance  of  the  let- 
ter in  reverence  and  love  for  the  Lawgiver  will  give  some- 
thing very  like  spiritual  observance.  And,  it  may  be 
added,  the  slightest  deviation  from  which  no  matter  how 
plausibly  justified  will  tend  to  great  evil.  Wonderful  is  the 
law  if  we  consider  the  results  following  from  obedience  or 
disobedience  whether  in  a  single  man  or  a  community.  The 
attitude  of  wonder  will  prevent  any  paring  down  of  the 
form  of  the  command,  with  the  empty  and  wicked  excuse 
that  we  desire  to  get  at  its  essence,  and  with  the  latent 
desire  to  get  permission  to  do  evil.  What  is  wonderful  will 
be  precious. 


Retn  jFreDertcb  JLa  Eue  fting     331 

"My  soul  keepeth  them."  This  means  something 
more  than  "I  keep  them,"  which  would  only  state,  what- 
ever it  would  imply,  that  he  consciously  keeps  them.  But 
to  say  "my  soul  keeps  them,"  is  to  say  that  the  emotional, 
propulsive  part  of  the  man,  makes  the  man  keep  the  law. 
The  psalmist  has  not  only  the  moral  sense  to  understand  the 
law  and  the  resolve  to  keep  it,  but  has  strong  tendencies 
toward  the  moral  law  from  the  sense  of  its  being  the  guid- 
ance of  superior  wisdom  which  knows  better  than  he  does 
what  is  right.  Thus  God's  testimonies  are  wonderful;  they 
are  like  natural  objects  to  which  we  stand  related,  and  which 
we  appreciate,  but  which  transcend  our  powers  to  make  or 
comprehend.     A  rose  is  that  to  us. 

Verse  1  30.  "The  opening  of  Thy  word  enlightens, 
making  the  simple  understand." 

"Opening"  as  of  a  gate.  The  words  of  God  are  as 
open  gates  or  doors  by  which  we  have  entrance  into  what 
was  before  unseen  and  inaccessible.  The  realm  of  the 
spiritual  is  as  a  dead  wall  till  the  open  door  of  the  word 
permits  gaze  and  entrance.  There  is  very  great  harmony 
between  this  verse  and  the  preceding.  The  "simple"  is 
the  uninvestigating,  the  not  worldly  wise  or  specially  intel- 
lectual. Perhaps  those  who  do  not  exercise  themselves  in 
things  too  high  for  them,  (Ps.  131  ),  who  realize  that  there 
are  matters  in  which  a  humble  bowing  down  of  the  pride 
of  intellect  is  best  and  wisest.  Such  minds  find  the  words 
of  God  very  enlightening.  Of  course,  revelation  is  what 
is  directly  referred  to  here,  but  the  same  is  true  of  the  cre- 
ated works  of  God — the  works  of  nature.  Something 
more  is  needed  than  the  self-sufficient  investigating  spirit; 
some  submission  of  the  intellect  to  the  higher  faculties  of 
insight;  some  sense  of  the  wonderfulness  lying  behind  all 
nature  as  behind  all  revelation.  Carrying  out  the  figure 
more  perfectly  we  might  say  that  the  word  which  is  as  a 
closed  wall  to  the  hard,  scientific  spirit,  is  as  an  open  door 
to  the  lowly  soul   (the  simple)   who,  aspiring  to  penetrate 


332  ©electeD  psalms  anD  ^ONoarap&s 

beyond  the  veil  into  the  secret  place  finds  that  it  cannot 
walk  bui  must  fly  thither,  and  if  it  uses  natural  wings,  must 
spread  them  in  spiritual  air  and  pursue  its  way  by  means  of 
that  Spirit  who  is  given  to  all  who  ask  for  Him. 

Verse  131.  "My  mouth  I  stretch  and  pant,  because 
for  Thy  commandments,  I  long." 

There  is  here  apparently  a  figure  taken  from  the  habits 
of  wild  animals.  They  often  suffer  great  thirst  and  this 
stretching  the  mouth  and  panting  would  denote  extreme 
eagerness  for  water.  On  the  part  of  the  child  of  God  it 
expresses  the  intensest  longing  for  God's  commandments — as 
the  thirsty  animal  longs  for  drink,  so  he  longs  for  such  in- 
dications furnished  by  God's  law,  which  will  guide  when 
perplexed.  There  is  expressed  a  desire  here  for  immediate 
direction.  He  will  not  be  teased  by  constant  interference 
with  his  movements.  This  arises  from  a  feeling  of  helpless 
ignorance,  an  indication  that  his  view  of  his  situation  is 
wider  than  that  of  those  who  feel  wise.  His  is  the  spirit 
of  David,  not  that  of  Saul.  He  is  willing  to  be  under  a 
tutor.  This  connects  directly  with  the  topic  of  the  preceding 
verses — the  wonderfulness  and  the  enlightening  character 
of  the  law  of  the  Lord.  Men  often  gain  a  principle  from 
the  law  and  then  proceed  to  apply  it,  but  with  the  prin- 
ciple enters  also  the  spirit  of  self  will  and  self  conceit  and 
leads  a  man  upon  a  wrong  path,  while  he  thinks  he  is 
following  the  precepts  of  God.  It  needs,  it  may  be,  some 
other  precept  to  recur  to  him  which  he  also  must  obey  and 
which  will  modify  the  application  of  the  principle  that  he 
thinks  he  has  perfectly  seized  and  is  perfectly  applying.  It 
is  not  enough,  then,  that  one  should  be  fuli  of  zeal  for  en- 
lightenment and  of  energy  in  the  applying  of  that  knowledge. 
He  must  crave  as  a  thirsty  animal  craves  water  to  be  di- 
rected in  his  zeal  and  energy,  in  other  words,  to  have  God's 
commandments.  It  is  curious  that  as  the  figure  for  longing 
is  taken  from  the  habits  of  wild  animals,  so  the  absolute 
necessity  for  constant   guidance,   implied  by  the  eagerness 


Eeu*  jFreDerick  La  iftue  ftittg     333 

to  be  directed,  suggests  a  brute  animal  harnessed,  as  a  horse 
or   mule. 

Verse  1 32.  "Turn  to  me  and  be  gracious  to  me,  as 
(is)  due  to  the  lovers  of  Thy  name." 

We  have  in  this  stanza  set  forth,  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  God's  "testimonies,"  and  has  been  enlightened  by 
God's  words,  but  who  craves  earnestly  practical  direction — 
or  that  view  of  the  law  that  will  tend  practically  to  guide. 
He  is  also  subject  to  trials.  "Turn  to  me,"  implies  that 
God  has  not  been  gracious  to  him.  There  is  no  implication 
that  the  psalmist  has  lost  God's  secret  favor — that  God  has 
any  controversy  with  him.  For  such  a  feeling  as  that  must 
necessarily  be  accompanied  by  a  sense  of  ill  desert,  or  else 
God  would  be  regarded  as  a  fickle  and  capricious  God. 
Now  so  far  from  any  ill  desert  being  indicated  here  there  is 
on  the  contrary  a  strong  assertion  of  merit.  He  was  one 
of  the  lovers  of  God's  name,  and  there  was  therefore  some- 
thing due  him.  There  is  also  as  strong  an  implication  of  the 
consistency  of  God  and  His  want  of  caprice  in  the  ex- 
pression "as  (is)  due"  literally  "according  to  judgment," 
which  some  translate  "according  to  Thy  wont."  Both  ideas 
may  be  included.  For  "judgment"  does  not  mean  simple 
right,  but  God's  decision  as  to  what  is  right;  God's  usual 
decision,  the  decision  that  may  be  expected  of  Him.  Cap- 
rice is  excluded  then  by  the  very  expression  that  sets  forth 
the  psalmist's  merit;  and  we  have  here  not  the  utterance  of 
one  who  like  the  heathen,  solicits  the  favor  of  his  god, 
which  he  has  lost  he  knows  not  how,  but  a  prayer  for 
the  manifestation  of  God's  favor,  through  acts  of  kindness 
and  compassion  which  he  has  reason  to  expect  from  what 
he  knows  of  Him.  To  be  a  lover  of  God's  name,  is  to 
love  all  the  manifestations  He  makes  of  Himself  in  words 
or  works  or  acts.  This  does  not  amount  to  loving  all  that 
is  made  or  happens,  for  though  the  whole  universe  shows 
forth  God's  glory,  it  also  shows  forth  something  else,  since 
there  is  evil  and  imperfection  there,  and  not  till  the  creation 


334  Selected  pgalms  anD  S©onojitap^0 

has  partaken  of  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  sons  of  God, 
can  we  rejoice  in,  or  even  accept  all  things.  We  love  that 
part  of  God's  name  which  we  see  to  be  God's  name,  be- 
cause it  seems  to  us  to  exhibit  His  goodness  and  beneficence. 
And  if  we  are  really  in  rapport  with  Him,  then  we  shall 
be  able  to  love  His  name  even  where  we  cannot  see  in  it 
goodness  and  beneficence,  through  faith  that  they  are  there 
even  if  we  do  not  see  them.  In  the  earlier  day  God's  peo- 
ple limited  His  name  to  the  vicinity  of  the  theophanic  glory, 
and  later,  to  the  Shekinah  glory  of  the  temple  so  that  the 
Jews  at  Babylon  were  careful  to  pray  with  their  faces  to- 
wards Jerusalem,  because  there  God  had  "caused  His  name 
to  dwell,"  and  all  along  there  failed  not  those  who  under- 
stood God's  intimate  relation  to  His  universe  in  all  its  parts 
and  His  dominance  over  it  all.  A  remarkable  example  of 
this  is  seen  in  the  29th  Psalm.  As  time  rolled  on  this 
doctrine  commanded  more  and  more  the  assent  of  God's 
people,  and  now  that  the  light  of  science  has  flooded  the 
whole  realm  of  creation,  the  universe  is  seen  to  be  one  and 
instinct  with  reason,  that  is  with  God.  Yet  the  universe 
is  not  without  its  dark  corners;  there  are  hard  problems  for 
those  to  solve  who  desire  that  all  God's  works  and  acts 
should  praise  Him,  and  to  overcome  which,  there  needs 
something  of  love  and  loyalty  as  well  as  intelligence,  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  Ps.  1 33.  Would  that  that  spirit  were 
rife  at  the  present  time.  But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  another 
spirit  is  even  in  the  church,  a  spirit  that  manifests  itself  not 
always  in  direct  complaints  of  God's  dealings,  but  in  a 
mood  of  disquiet  and  anxiety  ("so  brutish  was  I  and  igno- 
rant") that  amounts  to  doubting  whether  goodness  is  on 
the  throne;  a  thing  which  there  are  found  those  who  deny. 
To  love  God's  name  then  may  well  draw  God's  favor 
and  kindness.  This  the  psalmist  claims,  but  humbly  and 
modestly.  He  does  not  claim  as  of  absolute  right  that  God 
would  make  things  pleasant  for  him,  but  says  "so  Thou 
judgest  right  to  deal  with  those  who  love  Thy  name."    God 


iftein  jFreDericb  La  Rue  fting     335 

must  be  free  to  bring  tribulation  upon  His  most  devoted 
servant  as  in  the  case  of  Job.  And  yet  we  may  be  sure 
that  if  we  appeal  to  God  for  His  favor  and  kindness,  glori- 
fying the  while  His  holy  name,  nothing  shall  happen  to  us 
without  His  love  going  with  it  and  a  purpose  to  make  it 
subserve  our  benefit.  A  distinction  ought  here  be  made. 
We  ought  to  love  all  of  God's  holy  name  and  yet  we  are 
not  obliged  to  like  it.  We  may  writhe  under  God's  deal- 
ings and  pray  to  be  delivered  from  them  (as  Job)  and  yet 
love  them.  As  a  daughter  might  love  her  father's  taking  her 
to  a  surgeon  for  it  might  evidence  his  self  denying  love, 
while  she  might  at  the  same  time  shrink  from  it  with 
dread.  Clearly  does  the  apostle  (Philipp.  4:6)  teach  us 
the  love  of  God's  name  in  the  midst  of  trial,  for  he  tells  us 
that  the  prayer  that  brings  peace  in  troublous  times  is  to 
be  made  "with  thanksgiving." 

Verse  1  33.  "My  steps  establish  by  Thy  word,  and 
let  not  any  iniquity  rule  over  me." 

"Establish,"  make  firm,  as  opposed  to  steps  sinking 
in  the  mire.  "By  Thy  word,"  through  the  cheer  and  energy 
induced  by  Thy  promise  and  through  its  fulfilment.  The 
servant  of  God  is  struggling  onward  in  his  toilsome  pilgrim- 
age towards  his  goal  and  reward,  and  he  asks  that  every- 
thing that  hinders  his  free  activity  should  be  removed  "by 
Thy  word."  That  is,  by  bringing  to  mind  the  promise 
when  it  is  forgotten,  or  inspiring  trust  in  it  when  confidence  is 
ready  to  fail,  and  also  by  the  hope  it  inspires  with  its  result- 
ing energy,  and  also  by  the  fulfilment  of  that  word.  This 
last  will  not  fail  for  He  who  pointed  out  the  goal  and 
promised  the  reward  by  that  pledges  Himself  to  be  with 
us  every  step  of  the  way  and  to  bring  us  safely  through. 
The  peculiar  trial  that  is  upon  him  and  makes  his  footing 
unstable,  appears  in  the  correlative  clause.  It  is  the  rule 
of  iniquity  over  him  either  feared  or  experienced.  We  can 
easily  sympathize  with  the  psalmist  for  every  child  of  God  is 
in  danger  from  the  rule  of  iniquity.     First,  there  is  iniquity 


336  ©elected  psalms  and  ^onogtap&$ 

without  the  evil  ruler,  whether  governmental  or  social.  To 
be  dependent  in  any  sense  upon  one  who  is  evil  is  a  dread- 
ful thing  for  one  who  not  only  desires  to  do  what  is  right 
but  what  is  large  and  loving.  He  can  never  know  the 
delight  of  one's  own  impulses,  in  the  rythmic  activities  of 
love.  Second,  iniquity  within — heart  iniquity  and  its  fruits, 
rooted  habits  of  evil,  and  the  tyranny  of  committed  sin.  This 
is  a  rule  that  governs  and  enslaves  the  intellect  as  well  as 
the  emotional  nature.  Third,  the  power  of  the  evil  one  in 
tempting  and  swaying  the  soul,  and  organizing  and  intensi- 
fying evil  around  us.  One  of  the  most  dreadful  results  of 
sin  is  that  it  enslaves,  and  one  of  the  noblest  results  of 
holiness  is  that  it  sets  free.  One  of  the  best  definition*  of 
holiness  is  freedom.  Of  course,  perfect  freedom  will  not  be 
till  the  rule  of  evil  be  entirely  swept  away,  and  with  new 
bodies,  and  a  new  world,  we  begin  at  last  to  live.  But  the 
apostle  teaches  us,  that  the  slave  while  yet  a  slave,  may 
be  the  Lord's  freeman.  And  so  the  servant  of  God  op- 
posed by  form  of  evil  that  hamper  him  and  conscious  of 
evil  in  his  heart  can  be  made  by  the  light  that  the  word  of 
God  causes  to  shine  through  the  grates  of  his  dungeon,  a 
prisoner  of  hope,  and  therefore  the  Lord's  freeman. 

Verse  1 34.  "Redeem  me  from  the  oppressions  of 
man,  and  I  will  keep  Thy  precepts." 

"Opressions"  in  the  plural  is  very  strong — many  acts, 
many  forms  of  oppression.  "Man"  in  the  singular  is  also 
very  significant.  The  troubles  of  the  psalmist  do  not  arise 
from  any  peculiarity  of  character  in  those  about  him  and  in 
whose  power  he  is,  his  position  is  such  that  he  is  placed 
in  antagonism  with  human  nature  itself.  So  was  it  with  our 
Lord.  It  was  the  fact  that  not  merely  did  certain  men 
strike  at  him,  but  human  nature  struck  at  him,  and  became 
guilty  through  His  death.  So  was  it  with  the  apostles. 
They  conferred  not  with  their  own  flesh  and  blood,  and 
as  little  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of  others.  Their  message 
was  directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  predilections  and  prejudices 


Eetn  iFreOertcfc  JLa  iftue  Eing     337 

of  their  nation.  An  influence  from  above  had  to  be  granted 
or  it  would  not  have  been  accepted.  So  was  it  with  the 
prophets.  They  were  a  living  reproof,  and  even  in  their 
promises  they  often  held  forth  what  was  humiliating  instead 
of  the  glory  that  was  craved,  and  bitter  instead  of  the  de- 
light that  was  desired.  So  is  it  with  the  humblest  ser- 
vant of  God  he  often  has  to  say  "it  is  not  men  who  have  op- 
posed me  but  man."  And  here  is  a  consideration  that  tends 
to  induce  pity  and  forgiveness  under  oppression.  As  our 
Lord's  "Father  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  This  form  of  expression  would  be  peculiarly  suited 
to  the  young  Solomon,  for  the  opposition  to  his  reigning  or 
his  policy  as  a  crown  prince,  would  be  largely  an  outcome 
of  human  nature  itself.  Tribal  pride  revolting  at  the  idea 
of  Jerusalem's  becoming  either  politically  or  ecclesiastically 
supreme  national  pride  revolting  at  the  king  of  Israel's 
under  the  tutelage  of  Jehova,  would  be  largely  used, 
to  oppose  the  accession  of  Him,  who,  as  was  well  understood 
would  be  not  only  the  heir  of  David's  throne,  but  of  his 
policy.  The  Assyrian  king  would  loudly  proclaim  that  he 
was  a  servant  of  Asshur  and  did  all  things  through  his 
might,  but  Isaiah  10:13  shows  how  little  reality  there  was 
in  that.  David  the  man  after  God's  heart  was  really  sub- 
servient to  Jehovah  in  his  royal  position.  "1  will  keep  Thy 
precepts."  This  may  be  understood  as  a  covenant  resolu- 
tion. "If  Thou  will  redeem  me,  I  will  keep  Thy  precepts." 
But  it  is  better  to  take  it  as  setting  forth  the  reason  of  the 
petition  of  the  first  clause.  "Thy  precepts" — the  work 
Thou  has  appointed  me  to  do,  hindered  and  thwarted  by 
the  oppressions  of  my  enemies.  Set  me  free  from  them, 
that  I  may  do  it.  Happy  they  who  pray  to  be  made  free 
only  that  they  may  accomplish  their  mission;  they  may  well 
pray  in  assured  hope.  Still  we  should  try  to  feel  that  even 
if  we  are  tied  up  from  doing  the  work  that  seems  ours  in 
the  world,  we  still  are  submitting  to  His  will.  If  we  are 
not  doing  His  precepts  we  are  keeping  His  statutes.     The 


338  ©elected  psalm*  ano  a^onograpiw; 

main  point  is  to  realize  that  God  orders  everything,  even  to 
our  being  laid  aside  by  incapacity,  infirmity  or  oppression. 
In  waiting  we  not  merely  serve  His  will  but  His  purpose  also. 

Verse  135.  "Let  Thy  face  shine  upon  Thy  servant, 
and  teach  me  Thy  statutes." 

The  word  "servant,"  indicates  not  merely  who  he  is, 
but  what  he  is  who  makes  this  petition.  He  is  God's  ser- 
vant and  may  claim  something  because  of  this  relation.  It 
does  not  imply  that  he  is  a  profitable  servant,  but  that  he 
holds  the  office  of  servant  and  desires  to  do  service.  This 
is  sufficient  to  found  a  claim  that  God  would  teach  him 
His  statutes  (orders).  What  can  a  servant  do  unless  he 
has  his  lord's  orders.  The  true  prosperity  of  a  devoted 
servant  is  to  have  his  master's  orders.  And  when  that  mas- 
ter is  God  the  more  specific  the  orders,  and  the  more  num- 
erous they  are,  even  to  the  end  occupying  of  every  minute,  the 
happier  he  is.  That  would  be  a  perfect  realization  of  Car- 
lyle's  "fire  proof  days."  This  interprets  the  verse  according 
to  the  strict  form  that  we  have  ascribed  to  the  verses  of 
this  psalm  according  to  which  the  second  clause  limits  the 
signification  of  the  first.  It  may  be  further  said  that  the 
expression  "Let  Thy  face  shine  upon  Thy  servant,"  can 
be  taken  as  a  general  petition  for  prosperity;  the  confident 
petition  inducing  a  grateful  desire  to  know  God's  will.  And 
it  may  be  further  said  more  directly  in  the  line  of  the  correl- 
ation, that  one  of  the  best  ways  that  God  takes  to  teach 
us  what  He  orders,  and  at  the  same  time  to  enable  us  to 
erter  into  the  spirit  of  those  orders — teach  us  something 
about  their  nature,  and  so  to  let  His  face  shine  upon  us,  to 
bring  us  into  close  rapport  with  Him. 

Verse  1  36.  "Streams  of  water  run  down  my  eyes, 
for  that  they  do  not  keep  Thy  law." 

"They"  is  emphatic — the  community,  the  people 
around  me.  This  verse  fixes  the  place  of  the  psalm  either 
at  a  time  when  the  law  was  not  fully  established,  or  else 
when  it  was  falling  in  the  esteem  of  the  people.     It  would 


Eetn  jFreDetick  La  Eue  l&ing     339 

seem  at  first  glance  fitted  to  express  the  feelings  of  a  Jere- 
miah, or  a  Daniel,  or  an  Ezra.  But  in  the  case  of  Jere- 
miah, his  reproofs  are  directed  rather  against  the  political 
and  moral  iniquity  of  his  people,  than  ecclesiastical  short- 
coming. And  in  the  case  of  Daniel,  it  can  hardly  be  the 
case  that  there  was  any  extensive  defection  among  the 
children  of  the  captivity.  The  historical  result  of  their 
captivity  was,  as  we  know,  a  remarkably  strict  adherence  to 
the  law,  and  the  effect  must  have  been  begun  to  be  wrought 
during  the  captivity.  From  the  animosity  against  the  Jews 
as  appeared  in  Esther  and  indeed  in  Daniel,  it  seems  clear 
that  they  did  not  coalesce  religiously  with  the  people  of  the 
lands.  And  in  the  case  of  Ezra  though  the  past  sins  of  his 
people  afflicted  him,  yet  they  repented  and  reformed.  That 
was  a  hopeful  case  in  which  there  was  little  occasion  for 
weeping.  This  is  the  language  rather  of  one  who  dwells 
amid  persistent  opposition  to  the  law  and  who  is  helpless  in 
the  face  of  it.  It  is  certainly  fitted  for  the  mouth  of  the 
youthful  Solomon,  who  would  be  filled  with  sorrow  all  the 
more  bitter,  because  he  was  not  naturally  of  the  melting 
mood,  because  he  could  so  plainly  see  the  remedy  that  ought 
to  be  applied  and  knew  how  to  use  it.  This  psalm 
and  this  verse  would  be  all  the  better  fitted  to  be  the  vehicle 
of  pious  emotion  for  all  ages,  than  if  it  was  originally  the  ut- 
terance of  one  in  exceptional  circumstances,  as  were  Jere- 
miah, Ezra  and  Daniel.  Solomon's  position  was  a  universal 
one.  A  servant  of  God  holding  to  a  promise  of  future  rule 
over  wicked  men,  whom  he  was  at  present  able  to  do  noth- 
ing to  restrain.  Able  only  to  exact  a  limited  influence,  for 
the  most  part  serving  God  by  witness  bearing,  and  enduring 
obloquy  on  account  of  his  adhering  to  God's  law. 

TZADDE. 

Verse  137.        "Righteous  art  Thou  O  Jehovah  and 
just  Thy  judgments." 


340  ^electeU  psalms  anD  ^onograpijg 

This  verse  was  probably  the  outcome  of  a  spiritual 
struggle.  God's  judgments  had  been  brought  very  near  the 
psalmist.  He  had  felt  them  in  his  own  person  or  was  the 
witness  of  the  infliction  on  his  friends  or  neighbors.  Now 
in  such  a  case,  the  temptation  is  first  not  to  recognize  what 
has  happened  as  a  judgment  at  all.  It  is  a  mishap  due 
simply  to  natural  forces,  or  it  is  a  wrong  inflicted  by  evil 
men.  We  are  loud  in  proclaiming  our  innocency.  The 
awful  judgment  of  the  French  Revolution  fell  upon  those 
who  were  full  of  self-complacent  enthusiasm — their  very  ef- 
forts to  do  good  brought  down  the  judgment  on  their  heads, 
God's  judgments  are  often  so  disconnected  in  appearance 
with  the  sin  as  to  need  insight  in  order  to  read  the  warn- 
ing. The  psalmist  has  insight.  He  is  taught  his  sin  by 
what  has  befallen  him,  and  his  anger  against  others  gives 
place  to  anger  against  himself.  He  feels  that  he  deserves  all 
that  has  befallen  him,  and  an  overwhelming  sense  of  God's 
righteousness  fills  his  mind,  which  is  near  to  acquiescent 
submission  and  the  recovery  of  an  eternal  friend. 

Verse  1  38.  "Thou  hast  commanded  righteousness, 
and  Thy  testimonies,  faithfulness — exceedingly." 

The  revisors  give  the  sense  correctly  and  smoothly  by 
supplying  "in"  before  righteousness  and  faithfulness.  "Thou 
hast  commanded  Thy  testimonies  in  righteousness  and  very 
faithfulness."  This  is  admirable  as  a  translation.  There 
is,  however,  great  poetic  force  notwithstanding  its  harshness 
in  rendering  literally  "righteousness"  and  "testimonies"  as 
oppositions.  The  verse  then  might  be  paraphrased  thus: 
"Thou  hast  commanded  righteousness  in  commanding  Thy 
testimonies  and  faithfulness  also  in  an  eminent  degree." 
The  state  of  mind  expressed  by  this  verse  is  what  Chris- 
tians often  fail  of  attaining  to,  and  yet  it  should  be  the 
feeling  of  all.  We  should  acknowledge  that  the  moral  law 
which  He  calls  on  us  to  obey  is  no  more  than  He  ought 
to  exact,  and  we  ought  to  render.  To  be  righteous  Him- 
self, He  must  insist  upon  our  being  holy,  and  that  insistence 


Eeto*  jFteDerick  JLa  Eue  ifting     341 

involves  the  awful  menace  of  what  He  must  inflict  upon  the 
disobedient.  We  are  apt  to  consider  with  the  old  Jews, 
that  God  has  tied  Himself  up  by  the  covenant  of  grace, 
to  give  us  every  good  thing  if  only  we  perform  the  stipulated 
condition.  Our  trust  to  Christ  takes  the  place  of  circum- 
cision and  can  as  easily  be  made  consistent  with  a  sinful  life. 
Religion  can  be  in  our  case  as  thoroughly  divorced  from 
morality  as  it  is  among  the  Musselmans.  It  was  remarkably 
so  in  the  Middle  ages,  and  there  are  survivals  of  that  feeling 
in  the  present  day.  Not  many  years  ago  a  faithful  Lutheran 
missionary  having  charge  of  several  country  churches  not 
far  from  Easton,  Pa.,  had  to  be  guarded  in  his  passages  to 
and  fro  from  the  animosity  of  many  of  his  congregations, 
who  maintained  that  he  swindled  them,  requiring  as  he  did, 
repentance  and  faith,  when  they  had  complied  with  all  the 
conditions  required,  being  baptized,  having  children  bap- 
tized, paying  all  church  dues,  and  taking  the  communion 
regularly.  We  smile  when  we  read  this,  but  how  much 
better  is  the  young  man  of  the  world  called  Christian,  who 
makes  of  Christ  a  convenience,  to  be  relied  on  in  his  ex- 
tremity as  delivery  from  the  consequences  of  his  sins,  but 
who  cuts  and  carves  and  trims  down  the  moral  law  to 
suit  the  exigencies  of  one  who  must  obey  whether  or 
no  the  customs  and  maxims  of  society;  who  bridles  in  the 
little  love  he  has  for  God  and  man  lest  it  enact  for  him  a 
law  more  exacting  than  any  literal  interpretation  of  the 
old.  What  better  is  that  emotional  Christian,  full  of  en- 
thusiastic feelings,  who  thinks  that  he  fulfils  the  conditions 
God  requires  by  unbridled  emotion,  when  there  is  just  one 
condition  He  has  laid  down  and  that  is  holiness.  "Be  not 
deceived,  God  is  not  mocked,  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap."  "Holiness  and  Godliness  is  es- 
sential," Paul  says;  "though  I  understand  all  mysteries, 
though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned  and  have  not  love  I 
am  nothing."  And  shall  the  Lord  not  insist  upon  righteous- 
ness?"     "Many  shall  say  unto  me  in  that  day,  'Lord  have 


342  Selected  pgalms  anD  S@onograpi)0 

we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  name  and  in  Thy  name  cast 
out  devils?"  The  claim  is  correct,  but  it  gains  nothing 
for  them.  Alas,  the  surprise  and  shame  that  awaits  many 
who  look  forward  confidently.  That  was  a  gem  of  comic 
poetry  of  the  Rev.  Quake  Strong,  who  was  an  eminent  re- 
vivalist on  earth,  and  who  expected  to  be  received  with 
all  honors  to  heavenly  mansions.  He  would  not  have  been 
received  at  all,  had  he  not  humbled  his  claims  and  appealed 
for  mercy  as  a  miserable  sinner.  No,  God  means  that  His 
law  shall  be  obeyed  and  woe  to  those  who  trifle  with  it, 
for  it  is  trifling  with  Him.  We  may  call  God,  Father,  but 
let  us  remember  that  as  St.  Peter  tells  us,  that  God  judgeth 
without  respect  of  persons  according  to  each  man's  work, 
and  that  nothing  will  pass  muster  except  obedience.  It  is 
in  "very  faithfulness"  to  His  promises,  that  God  requires 
holiness.  What  sort  of  a  God  would  He  be  who  was  not 
hostile  to  the  unpenitant  sinner?  What  sort  of  a  heaven 
would  it  be  that  admitted  unholiness?  It  is  illegal  for  the 
sinner  to  be  saved,  and  yet  Christ  saves  him  because  He 
has  power  to  justify  him.  It  was  illegal  for  Christ  to 
touch  the  leper,  and  yet  He  touched  the  leper;  for  when 
He  touched  the  leper  it  was  no  leper  that  He  touched,  such 
is  the  Paradox  of  grace. 

Verse  1  39.  "My  zeal  consumes  me  because  my  ad- 
versaries forget  Thy  words/' 

The  words  translated  "zeal"  is  more  commonly  used 
in  the  sense  of  jealousy  or  even  "envy."  We  must  give 
the  word  the  association  with  the  jealousy  of  a  husband; 
and  the  envy  of  one  who  craves  the  possession  of  a  precious 
thing  that  another  has,  to  get  at  the  strange  strength  of 
the  feeling.  It  consumes  the  psalmist.  It  passes  all  bounds 
and  becomes  exclusive,  destroying  for  the  time  all  others. 
This  verse  is  a  very  intense  expression  of  desire  for  the 
honor  of  God.  The  situation  is  this;  he  has  malignant  ad- 
versaries, and  he  is  in  the  midst  of  their  strivings  against 
him;    immediate    peril    and    prospective     loss     menace    him 


Retn  iFtedeticfe  La  Hue  ding     343 

through  their  machinations,  to  say  nothing  of  their  bitterness 
against  him  personally  which  tends  to  awaken  bitter  feel- 
ings. Yet  here  all  anxiety,  fear  and  anger  that  is  personal 
are  swallowed  up  in  thought  for  God's  honor.  Natural 
feeling  in  one  who  believed  in  God's  "words" — His  pre- 
cepts and  promises  with  their  tremendous  sanctions,  would 
be  contented  with  the  fact  that  his  enemies  forgot  God's 
words,  for  it  would  be  their  exceeding  great  loss.  But 
there  is  here  something  better  than  nature.  Not  love  of 
his  enemies,  but  such  a  desire  for  God's  honor  as  not  only 
makes  him  eager  that  those  who  hate  and  would  destroy 
him,  should  hold  fast  God's  words  and  gain  full  fruition 
from  that  adherence,  but  so  fills  him  with  the  desire  of  it  that 
jealousy  is  the  only  word  that  can  express  the  feeling.  Jeal- 
ousy is  one  of  the  most  egotistical  and  selfish  of  feelings, 
yet  the  word  describes  his  position  of  self  abnegation  be- 
cause he  has  so  indentified  himself  with  God,  that  he  feels 
wronged  in  himself  by  the  neglect  of  God  by  his  enemies. 
This  becomes  stronger  if  we  consider  these  words  as  either 
actually  or  dramatically  Solomon's.  One  of  those  words  of 
God  forgotten  by  His  enemies,  was  the  word  of  promise 
that  he  should  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  Father  David.  Had 
his  adversaries  remembered  that  word  they  would  have 
been  his  adherent  supporters.  It  was  natural  that  the 
denunciation  of  his  adversaries'  contempt  of  God's  "words" 
should  be  inspired  by  self  interest.  But  it  is  not  so.  He 
feels  that  the  promise  of  the  throne  was  not  made  to  him 
for  his  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  his  people.  And  he 
claims  that  it  is  because  that  promise  is  an  expression  of 
the  large  faithfulness  of  God  to  Israel,  that  he  is  so  outraged 
because  it  is  disregarded.  There  are  abundant  indications 
throughout  this  psalm  that  it  was  in  this  wide  view  of  the 
purpose  of  the  promise,  that  Solomon  desired  the  throne. 
It  is  a  great  spiritual  height  to  attain  when  we  desire  our 
good  not  because  it  is  our  good  but  because  it  promotes 
God's  glory,  and  the  welfare  of  others.     Far  easier  it  is 


344  ©elected  psalms  and  q^onogtapfts 

for  us  to  acquiesce  in  an  evil  for  God's  glory.  Solomon 
did  not  always  keep  this  frame  of  mind.  Indeed,  his 
whole  life  was  a  great  temptation  to  desire  the  honor  and 
glory  of  God  for  his  own  glory.  For  his  office  in  the  history 
of  redemption  was  to  make  palpable,  and  exhibit  in  forms 
of  prophetic  splendor  and  beauty  and  wise  organization,  the 
purpose  of  God  to  His  people  and  all  these  redounded  to 
his  own  glory  also.  Tyranny  and  oppression  could  thus 
be  easily  justified  and  was  doubtless  justified.  The  glory  of 
God  was  hidden  by  the  glory  of  Solomon. 

Verse  140.  "Pure  is  Thy  word — exceedingly,  and 
Thy  servant  loves  it."  j 

Pure,  smelted,  refined,  purified,  as  some  precious  metal 
without  any  earthly  matter  or  slag  in  it.  What  does  this 
mean  as  to  the  word  or  promise  of  God?  It  would  seem 
to  be  this.  God's  promise  in  its  real  meaning  holds  out  the 
expectation  of  that  which  is  most  precious  and  of  only  that. 
Now,  that  which  is  most  precious  is  not  regarded  by  all 
as  such.  A  work  of  art  in  pure  taste  is  only  enjoyed  by 
the  few.  The  coarse  taste  of  the  mass  is  attracted  by 
something  gaudy  and  glittering.  Fine  flavors  require  a 
refined  palate.  That  which  is  best  and  most  precious,  ap- 
pears often  at  first  tasteless  and  weak  until  we  understand 
how  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  it.  So  it  is  with  die  word  of 
God.  It  holds  forth  most  precious  things,  but  they  are 
often  not  recognized  as  precious.  They  cannot  at  once  be 
realized,  they  must  be  waited  for.  They  may  be  not  what 
is  desired,  or  perhaps  what  goes  contrary  to  the  desires,  e.  g. 
In  our  Lord's  time  the  Jews  desired  salvation  and  would 
have  welcomed  a  Saviour  who  offered  them  dross  and  slag 
instead  of  pure  gold.  When  the  pure  gold  was  offered 
them  they  despised  and  rejected  it.  They  could  not  ap- 
preciate a  salvation  that  consisted  in  reconciliation  with  God, 
and  required  an  humbling  of  their  proud  self  will,  and  a 
brotherhood  with  all  nations.  So  it  is  with  God's  promise 
at  all  times.     It  is  too  pure  and  high  to  be  appreciated  by 


Iftetn  jFreDeucfe  La  Eue  ifting     345 

any  but  those  whose  heart  God  has  touched.  The  promise 
to  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  was  a  pure  promise.  It  held 
forth  what  should  be  precious  throughout  the  ages  eternal. 
It  required  faith  in  the  patriarch  to  believe  not  merely  that 
it  would  be  fulfiled,  but  that  it  was  good  at  all.  The 
acceptance  of  it  involved  renunciation  for  generations  on  the 
part  of  the  patriarchs.  Doubtless  Abraham,  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  had  a  far  off  understanding  that  there  was  more  in 
the  promise  than  met  the  ear,  that  no  mere  home  for  their 
descendants,  nor  their  great  increase  was  signified  by  the 
promise,  but  higher  blessings  for  themselves,  for  others,  and 
for  all.  But  how  many  of  their  successors  understood  them 
in  a  narrow  material  sense,  appropriating  for  themselves  the 
dross,  the  slag  and  not  the  refined  gold  of  the  promise. 
How  many  are  now  complaining  of  God  that  He  does  not 
fulfil  the  narrow  literal  form  of  His  promises.  The  promises 
to  true  prayer  are  interpreted  as  if  they  meant  that  each  one 
of  us  may  have  his  own  wilful  way  if  he  chooses  to  ask 
for  it.  But  God  gives  us  often  the  pure  gold  by  denying 
often  our  earnest  request  for  that  which  is  mere  slag.  The 
promise  to  our  Lord  was  that  He  should  not  dash  His  foot 
against  a  stone,  yet  He  was  given  over  to  death,  but  through 
that  door  He  entered  into  immortal  glory.  The  psalmist 
had  insight,  he  loved  this  "word"  because  of  its  exceeding 
purity.  He  says  "Thy  servant  loves  it."  "Servant"  is 
significant.  The  acquiescence  of  docility  is  the  main  thing 
necessary  to  induce  the  acquiescence  of  satisfaction.  Sub- 
mitting to  the  severe  purity  of  God's  word  which  sometime* 
seems  hard  and  trying,  God's  servant  learns  to  love  it.  The 
child  of  God  should  learn  to  do  without  present  delights  and 
realizations — "the  ginger  that  is  hot  in  the  mouth"  and  be- 
lieve that  God's  promise  waits  only  that  it  may  be  ful- 
filled more  perfectly  and  that  in  truly  waiting  for  it,  the 
child  of  God  has  begun  to  realize  it.  "Loves  it,"  this  is 
something  near  to  an  expression  of  love  to  God  which  is 
singularly  wanting  in  this  psalm.     The  very  far  off  applica- 


346  ©elected  psalms  ana  e@onogtap&0 

tion  of  the  promise,  yielding  so  little  in  the  present,  indicates 
the  far  reaching  wisdom  and  love  of  God,  and  awakens 
like  love  in  the  psalmist. 

"There  is  no  architect 
Can  build  as  the  muse  can; 
She  is  skillful  to  select 
Materials  for  her  plan. 
She  lays  her  beams  in  music." 

Verse  141.  "Little  (am)  I  and  despised,  (but)  Thy 
precepts  do  I  not  forget." 

This  is  one  of  the  verses  which  force  us  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  this  psalm  has  reference  to  a  real  person  whether 
he  speaks  in  his  own  person  or  is  spoken  for  dramatically. 
No  ideal  Israel  will  answer  the  requirement.  Here  is  a  per- 
son who  is  "little  and  despised,"  and  yet,  who  appears 
from  many  places  in  the  psalm,  to  be  a  person  of  great 
importance,  worthy  the  opposition  and  hate  of  princes.  In- 
deed, the  very  word  "despised"  indicates  a  certain  promi- 
nence, when  the  position  of  the  despisers  is  considered.  He 
is  evidently  a  pretender  to  some  high  place,  and  in  the 
public  eyes.  It  is  evidently  inapplicable  to  Daniel  in  the 
days  of  his  tutelage  at  the  Babylonian  court,  and  to  Jere- 
miah appropriate  only  at  the  opening  moment  of  his  stormy 
career.  David  was  despised  and  regarded  as  little  for  a 
very  little  while  and  only  in  the  bosom  of  his  own  family, 
by  his  brothers.  But  the  psalmist  was  despised  by  "the 
proud,"  by  "princes."  David  was  hated  by  Saul  but  not 
despised.  From  the  very  first  of  his  public  career  he  was 
regarded  as  formidable  and  prominent.  It  suits  Solomon 
perfectly  in  the  years  of  his  tutelage.  But  what  is  the 
connection  between  these  clauses.  "Precepts"  is  to  be 
understood  as  meaning  the  law  of  God  as  it  assigns  one's 
work.  Now  there  is  nothing  strange  or  strikng  in  the  fact  of 
a  little  and  despised  one,  keeping  to  the  work  that  is  set 
him  by  God.  Indeed,  service  is  closely  allied  to  a  lowly 
station.     Yet  these  clauses  are  set  over  against  each  other 


Rett*  jfreDerick  La  iftue  ifting     347 

as  if  they  were  in  some  respect  contrary  to  each  other.  The 
key  to  the  relation  of  the  clauses  may  be  indicated  by  the 
context.  If  we  look  back  we  find  in  verse  137  and  138 
a  strong  assertion  of  God's  righteousness  and  faithfulness 
made  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  appearances  were 
against  that  righteousness  and  faithfulness.  In  verse  1  39  we 
have  the  adversaries  of  the  psalmist.  Judging  according 
to  those  appearances  and  disregarding  the  injunctions  and 
promises  of  God.  Then  in  verse  1 40  we  have  the  same 
implication  in  the  emphatic  assertion  of  the  purity  of  God's 
word,  that  present  appearances  are  against  it.  Carrying  on 
this  view  of  the  stanza  we  would  have  in  this  the  1 4 1  verse 
one  of  those  false  appearances  that  make  it  necessary  to 
assert  in  strong  terms  God's  righteousness.  He — God's  ser- 
vant— is  little  and  despised.  This  in  the  minds  of  worldly 
men  is  sufficient  to  create  more  than  a  presumption  that  the 
service  of  God  is  unprofitable.  This  presumption  is  not 
contradicted  in  express  terms,  but  in  effect,  and  lyrically,  by 
the  antithesis  of  these  two  clauses,  "I  am  little  and  despised 
(yet)  I  do  not  forget  Thy  precepts."  I  keep  to  the  duties 
that  God  has  assigned  me.  My  situation  does  not  show 
that  God  is  unrighteous  or  unfaithful;  I  am  able  rather  by 
my  adherence  to  God's  precepts,  to  give  the  lie  to  my  little- 
ness and  the  contempt  with  which  I  am  regarded.  I  have 
by  it  the  warrant  that  I  am  not  what  I  seem,  that  I  shall 
be  great  and  honored.  So  these  adversive  clauses  involve 
the  same  assertion  of  God's  righteousness  that  the  others  do. 
The  children  of  God  should  lay  this  consolation  to  heart 
and  boast  (Rom.  5:2)  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 
The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  and  no  one  serves  the 
true  and  faithful  God  in  vain — though  he  wait  long. 

Verse  142.  "Thy  righteousness"  (is)  right  forever, 
and  Thy  law   (is)   truth." 

The  word  "righteousness"  must  not  be  understood  as 
an  abstract  quality,  as  an  attribute  of  God  in  the  theological 
sense.      It  is  equivalent  to  right  doing.        "Righteousness" 


348  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpjjs 

and  "right"  are  respectively  masculine  and  feminine  forms 
of  the  same  word.  The  first  is  concrete,  the  second  rather 
abstract.  Taken  in  this  sense  the  verse  would  read,  "Thy 
right  doing  is  right  forever  and  Thy  cult — Thy  law  of  or- 
dinances is  reality  itself — right  forever."  Standards  of  right 
and  wrong  vary.  One  age  reverses  the  judgments  of  another. 
The  long  lapse  of  ages  will  but  bring  out  in  clearer  light  the 
righteousness  of  God  and  force  a  recognition  at  the  hands  of 
unwilling  men.  But  God's  righteousness  is  not  approved 
at  all  times  or  all  at  once.  As  the  great  man's  work  is  meant 
"not  for  a  day  but  for  all  time"  and  requires  a  long  interval 
to  bring  out  fully  its  merits.  So  the  righteousness  of  God 
needs  the  great  forever  to  bring  it  out  clearly  before  the 
minds  of  all.  This  last  harmonizes  with  the  tone  thought 
of  this  stanza — which  is  a  strong  assertion  of  the  righteous- 
ness and  faithfulnes  of  God  in  spite  of  appearances  to  the 
contrary.  And  here  is  found  a  great  source  of  consolation 
for  God's  afflicted  people.  If  God's  word  and  work  is  for 
all  ages  and  is  to  be  judged  by  all  the  ages,  it  stands  to  rea- 
son that  a  hasty  and  partial  view  may  cause  misunderstand- 
ing. The  afflicted  one  can  see  but  a  little  way.  Let  him 
be  assured  that  what  appears  unfair  and  untrue  in  God's 
dealings  is  so  because  of  His  partial  view.  The  promise 
that  He  makes  and  seems  not  to  fulfil,  he  fulfils  as  far  as 
possible,  nay,  the  very  withholding  tends  to  the  realization. 
The  law  of  God  with  all  the  warnings  and  promises  con- 
tained in  its  types  and  symbols  is  truth.  It  leads  some- 
whither. He  who  takes  that  path  will  arrive.  There  is  no 
delusion  about  it.  It  means  all  and  more  than  all  it  seems 
to  mean*  Besides  it  is  not  all  promise,  or  instruction  or 
precept;  it  is  realization,  partial  realization — foretaste  and 
prophecy  of  what  shall  be  to  the  individual  and  to  society. 
Compared  with  other  nations,  Israel  must  have  been  while 
she  kept  the  law,  a  social  paradise.  We  have  reached  the 
rock  when  we  repose  on  what  God  has  ordained. 


l&etn  jFre&ericR  JLa  IRue  Mm     349 

Verse  143.  "Distress  and  anguish  seize  me;  Thy 
commandments  (are)   my  delight." 

Here  again  we  have  the  tone  thought,  or  rather  the 
tone  situation  of  the  stanza — present  trouble,  prospective  de- 
liverance, present  comfort  through  faith.  In  this  verse,  as  in 
so  man  y  cases,  the  second  clause  modifies  the  first.  The 
trouble  and  anguish  are  not  utter,  there  is  great  alienation; 
the  psalmist  can  take  delight  in  the  commandments  of  God. 
If  he  were  merely  called  to  work  it  would  be  much,  for 
that  call,  heard  and  heeded  in  the  stress  of  sorrow,  is  very 
comforting  and  healing.  Well  does  Carlyle  call  occupations 
"fire  proof  joys."  But  this  is  occupation  appointed  by  God. 
Great  is  the  sanction  to  that,  and  glorious  must  be  the  issue. 
In  one's  trouble  and  anguish  God  may  appear  to  be  absent. 
Well,  in  His  commandments  we  have  something  that  is 
His.  We  all  know  what  pleasure  there  is  in  carrying  out 
the  commands  of  one  who  was  loved  and  is  departed,  and 
how  much  society  there  is  for  our  lonely  hearts  in  carrying 
out  what  we  know  would  be  his  desires.  No  wonder  that 
the  psalmist  takes  delight  in  God's  commandments,  for  it 
brings  him  into  communion  with  God  Himself.  There 
is  the  refuge  from  sharp  cutting  words  or  sharp  cutting  acts 
or  from  threats  or  machinations  that  fill  the  heart  with  dis- 
quiet. We  are  able  to  forget  all  these  through  the  joy  of 
rapport  through  obedience  and  we  can  well  afford  to  forget 
them.  There  is  no  need  for  us  to  be  alive  to  all  the  plots  of 
our  enemies  in  order  to  counteract  them.  God's  command- 
ments are  our  best  guidance  through  the  mazes  of  our  ene- 
mies' designs,  and  better  and  shrewder  than  any  plotting 
on  our  own  behalf.  In  obedience  to  them  is  a  sure  hope 
of  deliverance  from  trouble  and  a  better  recompense  for  all 
losses.  Here  is  trouble  amounting  to  anguish  to  be  ex- 
changed for  pleasure  amounting  to  delight  by  simply  follow- 
ing God's  commandments.  That  is  not  only  the  way  of 
peace  but  of  victory. 


350  ^electen  psalm*  ana  aponogtap&s 

Verse  144.  "Right  (are)  Thy  testimonies  to  eternity; 
make  me  to  understand  and  I  shall  live."  "Testimonies" — 
the  moral  law. 

The  moral  law  will  command  the  assent  of  rational 
minds  forever.  It  is  eternally  right;  right  in  an  absolute 
sense;  right  in  its  accordance  with  the  highest  moral  taste; 
right  and  faithful  in  the  results  that  flow  from  obedience, 
throughout  eternity.  The  judgments  of  passion  and  preju- 
dice and  self  interest  are  but  for  the  moment.  The  con- 
science is  often  warped,  but  the  law  is  eternally  right.  It 
is  the  standard  of  right.  It  is  that  by  which  conscience 
corrects  itself  and  educates  itself  before  perfect  works  of 
art.  Its  dictate  is  "do  this  and  live,  disobey  and  die."  Life 
is  the  result  of  obedience,  not  merely  because  by  obedience 
we  are  delivered  from  death  as  the  extra  punishment  of 
an  offended  God,  but  because  the  commandments  of  the 
moral  law  are  a  true  source  of  life  if  obeyed.  Acts  of 
obedience  are  acts  of  the  higher  life  and  naturally  result 
in  life  as  disobedience,  likewise  naturally,  results  in  death. 
Hard  would  it  be  for  us  if  that  law,  which  the  final  result  of 
the  ages  approves,  should  be  attained  only  through  the 
experience  of  the  ages.  Even  if  it  were  given  to  us  in 
letter,  it  would  be  worth  little  to  us  if  the  long  experience  of 
the  ages  were  necessary  to  understand  it.  But  this  is  not 
so.  It  was  given  to  us  in  letter  by  the  infinite  mind  which 
comprehends  all  the  ages,  and  our  souls  made  to  chord 
with  that  infinite  experience,  so  that  all  men  naturally  confess 
and  approve  the  right.  But  we  have  need  to  pray  with 
the  psalmist  "make  me  to  understand,"  for  While  we  ac- 
cept and  admire  a  general  moral  principle.  It  is  in  the 
application  of  it  to  the  details  of  life  that  we  are  deceived 
and  fall  into  sin.  The  most  intense  obedience  becomes 
the  intensest  disobedience.  As  St.  Paul  says,  sin  used  the 
commandment  to  deceive  him  and  so  he  was  slain.  We 
need  that  the  Giver  of  the  commandment  should  use  the 
commandment  to  enlighten  us  and  to  make  us  live. 


Rett*  jFreDerick  La  Eue  ding     351 

KOPH. 

Verse  145.     "I  have  called  with  a  whole  heart;  an- 
swer me  Jehovah;  Thy  statutes  will  I  keep." 

The  omission  of  the  object  of  the  verb  "call,"  espec- 
ially since  it  is  found  in  the  next  verse,  seems  to  direct  at- 
tention to  the  simple  act  of  calling,  as  in  Ps.  116:  2.  The 
point  made  is  not  that  he  calls  on  Jehovah,  but  that  he 
calls  at  all,  and  especially  that  he  calls  with  his  whole  heart. 
That  the  psalmist  is  in  difficulty  and  danger  is  manifest 
throughout  this  stanza.  But  his  mind  has  been  troubled 
about  the  manner  of  his  calling.  He  feels  that  he  has  not 
called  as  he  should.  Now  he  says  "I  call  whole  heartedly." 
The  omission  of  "my"  confines  the  attention  still  more  mark- 
edly to  the  simple  call  itself.  What  is  this  calling  with  the 
whole  heart?  It  is  an  unreserved  call.  1  might  call  a  man 
in  for  a  purpose.  "Come  in"  I  would  say,  yet  I  might  very 
soon  wish  him  to  go  away.  I  need  his  special  help,  but 
I  do  not  need  him.  A  true  call  on  God  in  the  highest 
sense,  summons  Him  without  any  reservations.  It  calls 
Him  to  the  soul  to  stay  there  forever,  and  to  reign  there  as 
God,  in  all  the  vast  meaning  of  the  word.  This  verse  seems 
to  be  the  expression  of  a  soul  which  has  conquered  its  in- 
difference or  repugnance  and  says:  "At  last,  I  call  with  a 
whole  heart."  There  will  be  something  involved  in  such 
utterances  as  this,  something  different  in  each  individual  case. 
In  one  it  will  imply  the  passing  away  of  a  guilty  dread; 
in  another  the  giving  up  of  a  sinful  desire  or  practice;  in 
another  (as  here)  the  submission  of  the  human  will  to  the 
Divine  will.  This  last  is  sometimes  the  hardest  of  all. 
The  "statutes"  of  God  which  he  here  engages  to  keep,  do 
not  mean  the  "law"  as  it  appeals  to  the  rational  and  moral 
man,  but  the  expresion  of  the  abitrary  will  of  God  which 
orders  without  assigning  any  reason  for  those  orders.  Dread 
ful  is  the  state  of  that  soul,  which,  conscious  that  it  needs 
God,  is  also  conscious  that  it  is  unwilling  to  submit  to  God — 
to  obey  His  will  ex  animo — for  that  is  the  meaning  of 


352  §>electeD  psalms  anD  6©onoarapi)0 

keeping  His  statutes.  God  will  never  accept  constraint  of 
ourselves  for  whole  hearted  service. 

Verse  146.  "I  have  called  Thee — save  me — and  I 
will  observe  Thy  testimonies." 

In  the  preceding  verse  the  desire  expressed  is  to  enter 
into  relations  with  God — relations  before  broken  or  im- 
perfect. "I  call,"  he  says,  "answer  me";  not  answer  me 
by  doing  something  for  me  as  is  the  usual  signification  of  the 
phrase.  But  answer  in  personal  response — in  whatsoever 
of  supernatural  reply  that  we  may  call  communion  with 
God.  At  least  this  is  the  poetic  form.  In  this  verse  his 
mind  is  full  of  his  danger  and  of  Him  as  a  helper  upon 
whom  he  calls.  Instead  of  saying,  "I  call,"  he  says,  "I 
call  Thee";  instead  of  saying  "answer  me,"  he  cries  "save 
me."  Truly  there  is  an  order  in  this.  The  bar  that  often 
prevents  the  souls  cry  for  help  is  the  consciousness  of  broken 
relations  with  God.  That  last  communion  reestablished, 
then  comes  the  cry  of  faith  for  help,  "Save  me."  The  de- 
liverance that  the  psalmist  asks  for  is  indicated  in  verse  150. 
He  is  surrounded  by  enemies  and  is  in  danger  from  them. 
It  is  a  touching  exhibition  of  the  trials  of  young  Solomon's 
position — this  cry  "save  me."  He  must  often  have  seemed 
about  to  be  swept  away  by  those  who  were  striving  to  catch 
all  that  was  promised  to  him  by  God  out  of  his  hand.  But 
there  is  that  in  the  last  clause  which  indicates  a  sense  of 
sin;  as  in  the  preceding  verse,  he  resolves  to  submit  to  God's 
will;  here  he  resolves  to  be  more  than  ever  careful  and  con- 
scientious in  the  keeping  of  the  moral  law.  The  cry  for 
salvation  to  be  a  true  cry  must  be  accompanied  with,  yea 
half-inspired  by  the  decision  to  obey  God's  holy  will — to 
strive  after  holiness.  Sometimes  the  prayer  for  help  to  God, 
is  restrained  by  the  consciousness  that  we  only  desire  God's 
will  to  be  done  in  helping  us,  and  together  with  the  prayer 
for  help  comes  a  striving  after  a  higher  life.  "Of  what  use" 
we  feel,  "is  it  for  us  to  be  saved  from  external  danger,  if 
our  better  self — our  soul  is  dead  to  all  the  glorious  life  for 


Eetn  jFreDetick  La  Eue  ifting     353 

which  it  was  created."  In  this  point  of  view  this  utterance 
of  the  psalmist  becomes  the  utterance  of  every  child  of  God, 
who  finds  it  in  his  heart  to  ask  God  for  help.  And  even 
if  he  has  not  human  enemies  that  he  knows  of,  still  let  him 
be  well  aware,  that  his  deliverance  must  be  not  only  from 
himself  and  his  sins,  but  from  the  power  of  an  evil  spiritual 
world,  that  ever  surrounds  and  ever  wars  against  him. 

Verse  147.  "I  have  come  before  (Thee)  in  the 
(morning)  twilight  and  cry  to  Thee,  for  Thy  words  do  I 
wait." 

The  construction  would  be  quite  clear  were  it  not 
for  the  preposition  "in."  Without  it  "anticipate  the  twi- 
light" or  "meet  the  twilight"  would  mean.  "I  rise  at  the 
morning  twilight."  That  the  preposition  is  used  significantly, 
however,  is  plain  from  its  disuse  in  the  next  verse.  Yet 
most  interpreters  try  to  do  away  with  its  significance  by 
supplying  the  verb  rise,  as  if  it  were,  "I  anticipate  to  rise" — 
I  rise  early  and  so  there  would  then  be  no  reason  for  the 
use  of  the  preposition.  It  is  better  to  supply  as  object  of  the 
verb  the  pronoun  "Thee,"  which  indeed  is  almost  forced 
upon  us  by  the  preceding  context.  Or  without  understand- 
ing any  object  we  might  translate,  "I  present  myself  in  the 
twilight."  The  verb  has  often  the  meaning  of  "meet"  also 
(with  "face")  come  into  the  presence  of  a  person,  before 
whom  we  stand  as  before  an  object.  In  Ps.  88 :  14  we 
have  "come  before  Thee"  and  we  have,  in  verse  145,  an 
example  of  the  significant  omission  of  the  object  pronoun. 
Indeed  if  we  give  the  verb  this  construction  we  have  a  curi- 
ous uniformity  in  this  stanza.  The  first  two  verses  begin  with 
the  verb  "call,"  first  without,  then  with  the  object  "Thee." 
The  next  two  begin  with  the  verb  "come  before"  with  the 
object  "Thee,"  omitted  in  the  first  instance,  and  supplied  in 
the  second.  It  is  harder  to  say  what  the  significance  of  the 
omission  or  why  he  speaks  at  all  of  the  morning  twilight  un- 
less he  pleads  this  as  a  proof  of  his  sincerity,  and  a  reason, 
why,  therefore,  God  should  hear  his  prayer.     This  is  thor- 


354  ©elected  psalms  and  $@onograp&$ 

oughly  artless  and  may  be  made  lyric  by  the  consideration 
that  he  also  encourages  himself  by  the  thought  of  his  praying 
in  the  morning  twilight.     It  is  congruous  to  earnestness  and 
therefore  can  become  part  of  his  cry  to  God;  just  as  bowing 
the  knees,  prostration,  or  sackcloth  and  ashes.      These  are 
all  but  utterances  of  what  in  the  case  of  some,  would  be 
done  in  silence.       We  must  remember  that  this  is  not  silent 
but  vocal  prayer.     It  is  not  self-forgetful.     The  thought  of 
himself   is   rarely   absent   from   the   psalmist.      This   is   the 
utterance  of  a  servant  of  God,  but  of  a  highly  self  con- 
scious one.     He  is  filled  also  with  the  thought  that  he  is  in 
the  presence  of  God;  and  the  surrounding  circumstances — 
the  twilight,  etc., — join  to  impress  him  with  the  feeling  that 
he  is  performing  an  act  of  much  solemn  service.      "I  am 
standing  before  Thee,"  he  says.     This  solemn  gathering  up 
of  the  soul  for  the  meeting  of  the  great  King  in  His  state, 
it  is  well  for  the  child  of  God  often  to  perform.     We  should 
not  always  come  in  haste  before  Him,  not  always  familiarly. 
God  is  our  Friend  and  Father,  but  He  is  as  well  the  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth.     "I  present  myself,"  he  says,  and  "I 
cry"  as  if  his  mind  was  not  so  much  occupied  with  what 
he  cried  for  as  with  the  mere  fact  of  his  calling  on  God. 
And  to  this  corresponds  the  last  clause — he  waits  not  for 
"Thy  word,"  that  is  Thy  promise,  but  "for  Thy  words." 
Here  we  have  set  forth  the  waiting  servant.     He  presumes 
not  to  dictate  at  all  to  the  great  Being  in  whose  presence 
he  stands.     He  does  not  so  much  as  refer  to  His  word  of 
promise,  to  hold  Him  to  that.     He  waits  to  hear  whatever 
He  may  please  to  say,  to  receive  whatever  He  may  please 
to  give.     The  last  clause  corresponds  to  "answer  me,"  in  the 
first  verse,    "give  me  words   in   reply,"    "I   wait  for   Thy 
words."     Nothing  is  more  unexpected  than  a  word,  who 
can    prophesy    it?      Who    can    prophesy    the    words    of 
God?     Yet  we  know  that  they  will  be  words  worthy  of 
Him,  instinct  with  love  and  providential  care,  and  also  of 
power,  for  His  words  are  Himself.     Better  than  any  provi- 


I&etn  4FreHerick  La  mue  ming     355 

sion  that  we  may  make  for  the  future  is  it  to  wait  for  the 
words  of  God.  For  "man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God." 

Alexander  remarks  about  the  augmented  form  of  the 
second  verb,  that  some  grammarians  consider  it  to  denote 
motion  towards.  Cry  to,  or  cry  towards,  gives  the  im- 
pression of  entering  a  presence;  here  may  be  the  reason  for 
the  omission  of  the  object. 

Verse  1 48.  "My  eyes  anticipate  the  watches  to  muse 
of  Thy  promise." 

The  "watches"  divided  the  night,  they  were  properly 
intervals  of  time,  but  came  to  mean  the  time  of  changing 
the  watch.  This  verse  states  that  the  psalmist  is  kept 
awake  at  night  by  thinking  on  the  promise  of  God.  He 
is  awake  at  the  turning  of  the  watch.  His  eyes  meet  the 
watch  as  it  is  coming.  Alexander  explains  the  verse,  thus: 
"Before  the  stated  hours  of  vigil  he  is  awake  and  ready  for 
devout  meditations."  This  can  hardly  be  called  happy. 
For  the  word  "vigil"  implies  that  the  watches  were  set 
for  religious  purposes;  and  it  destroys  the  poetry  by  substi- 
tuting vague  "devout  meditation  for  'to  muse  of  Thy  prom- 
ise." The  psalmist  is  in  trouble,  in  danger,  in  need,  if 
we  allow  the  context  to  influence  the  interpretation.  He 
lies  awake  at  night  thinking  of  the  promise  that  God  has 
given,  trying  to  exercise  faith  in  it,  trying  to  encourage  him- 
self in  it,  pleading  it  with  God,  hoping  for  immediate  ful- 
filment. At  the  same  time  we  may  well  suppose  that  such  a 
time  of  silent  striving  and  meditation  must  have  had  its 
happy  moment.  By  musing  on  the  promise  he  must,  many  a 
time  have  been  filled  with  joyous  hope  or,  what  is  better,  with 
a  blessed  sense  that  God's  present  ordering  is  best,  insert, 
full  of  love  and  pregnant  with  victory.  Note  the  advance 
in  "muse  of  Thy  promise,"  upon,  "wait  for  Thy  words." 

Verse  149.  "My  voice  hear  according  to  Thy  loving 
kindness,  O,  Jehovah,  according  to  Thy  judgments  quicken 
me. 


356  ©elected  Psalms  and  e@onogtap&0 

This  whole  stanza  is  gathered  up  in  one  pleading  tone 
and  may  be  said  to  be  a  continued  act  of  prayer.  It  is 
hardly  the  utterance  of  a  bold  faith.  Something  of  distance 
from  God  is  preserved.  And  yet  faith  is  here  and  that  of 
a  high  quality.  The  attitude  is  that  of  leaving  one's  in- 
terests in  God's  hands — and  waiting  on  Him.  Certainly 
it  suggests  the  idea  of  one  who  is  powerless  to  act  in  his 
own  defense,  whose  sole  help  is  in  God.  The  peril  is  evi- 
dently very  great,  and  yet  only  two  verses  contain  direct 
petitions  for  help,  verse  45  and  this  verse.  There  is,  as  it 
were,  a  certain  inaction  in  the  presence  of  his  enemies.  The 
fact  is,  his  mind  is  more  taken  up  with  God  than  with  his 
peril.  And  yet  there  is  confidence  and  hope.  He  "muses" 
on  the  promise,  (verse  148),  He  waits  for  God's  words. 
He  simply  gazes  (verse  150)  on  those  who  are  coming 
against  him,  and  simply  realizes  (verse  151),  the  presence 
of  the  Divine  Helper.  There  is  little  crying  to  God,  no 
panic;  there  seems  to  be  a  feeling  that  he  will,  he  must  be 
helped.  He  is  standing  in  the  presence  of  God  and  he 
cannot  be  destroyed  there.  God  is  near  and  therefore  there 
need  be  no  fear,  even  if  his  malignant  enemies  are  very 
near.  In  verse  152  he  seems  to  draw  strength  from  the 
spirituality  of  the  ten  commandments.  There  is  no  feeling 
of  merit  with  God  to  originate  or  enhance  this  confidence. 
Here,  in  this  verse,  we  see  the  appeal  made  to  God's  lov- 
ing kindness.  This  may  fairly  be  understood  to  imply  de- 
merit on  his  part.  In  love  towards  him  he  asks  to  be  saved 
from  death  (for  that  is  what  the  expression  must  mean), 
but  in  judgment  towards  his  enemies.  "According  to  Thy 
judgments,"  i.  e„  after  the  manner  that  Thou  judgest." 
These  enemies  are  unjust  to  me,  through  me  they  strike 
at  the  good — even  Thy  cause.  Deal  now  with  them  as 
is  Thy  way  to  deal,  as  the  great  Judge  of  heaven  and  I 
shall   be  saved. 

Verse  150.  "Near  have  drawn  those  pursuing  wicked 
devices,  from  Thy  law  they  go  far  off." 


Iftetn  jFteDenck  JLa  Hue  mm     357 

"Wicked  devices."  The  etymology  of  the  word  im- 
plies carefully  prepared  plans  of  evil.  The  statement  that 
they  draw  near  implies  that  these  devices  are  directed,  at 
least  in  the  first  place,  against  himself.  But  the  expression  is 
intentionally  vague,  so  to  leave  room  for  and  to  suggest  that 
the  evil  these  men  contrive  respects  more  than  himself. 
Alexander  in  place  of  wicked  devices  translates  "crime," 
which  has  the  advantage  of  suggesting  something  of  public 
interest,  in  the  evil  machinations  of  the  psalmist's  enemies. 
"Mischief"  is  not  only  too  vague  but  suggests  just  the  oppo- 
site of  what  is  really  meant — something  puckish,  impish,  ir- 
rational or  at  least  thoughtless  form  of  evil.  This  evil  has 
a  deep  purpose,  not  merely  to  injure  a  single  person,  but 
to  catch  away  from  him  certain  advantages — to  supplant 
him.  And  not  only  that  but  to  thwart  a  great  policy,  politi- 
cal and  ecclesiastical.  And  this  corresponds  to  the  last 
clause — "from  Thy  law  they  go  far  off."  This  last  is  a 
meiosis,  a  great  deal  less  is  said  than  is  meant.  The  fact 
is  in  their  drawing  nigh  the  psalmist  they  are  doing  their 
utmost  against  the  "law"  which  represents  the  whole  move- 
ment in  advance  initiated  by  God  through  David.  This 
is  what  is  principally  in  the  mind  of  the  psalmist — not  his 
danger  but  the  danger  to  the  law,  and  therefore  it  is  an 
implied  argument  of  urgency  for  God  to  interefere.  It  is 
as  if  he  had  said  "this  is  Thy  cause,  Thou  wilt  see  to  it, 
and  it  will  be  for  Thy  honour.  Here  we  see  the  connection 
with  the  preceding  verse.  "Thy  judgments"  suggest  punish- 
ments and  deliverances  upon  a  vast  scale  and  of  great  pub- 
lic interest.  In  crushing  those  who  were  drawing  near  to 
destroy  him,  God  would  be  doing  something  of  a  moment 
beyond  the  welfare  of  a  single  individual  or  the  bringing 
to  naught  of  a  petty  intrigue.  This  strengthens  the  impres- 
sion that  the  authorship  and  circumstances  of  this  psalm 
have  not  been  misapprehended  and  that  the  psalmist's  joys 
and  sorrows  were  of  national  import,  and  are  of  far  reaching 
meaning  to  the  children  of  God,  who,  like  the  author,  are 


358  Selected  Psalm*  anD  ^onograpD* 

heirs  to  the  promised  throne,  and  who  wait  for  it  in  training 
and  trial,  as  well  as  in  temptation  and  danger. 

Verse  151.  "Near  art  Thou,  Jehovah,  and  all  Thy 
commandments  are  truth." 

"Thou  drawest  nigh,  Jehovah."  The  connection  with 
the  previous  verse  is  manifest.  With  the  approach  of 
enemies  to  injure,  Jehovah  approaches  to  aid.  If  he  does 
not  appear  Himself  in  person,  He  appears  by  the  command- 
ments He  has  given.  "Commandments,"  as  we  have 
often  stated,  is  God's  law  as  guiding  action.  "All  Thy 
commandments  are  truth.  The  guide  posts  Thou  hast 
placed  to  mark  out  my  way  are  true  guide  posts.  Follow- 
ing them  I  am  safe.  Following  them  I  am  led  near  to 
Thee.  His  adherence  to  the  law  brings  his  enemies  upon 
him;  his  adherence  to  God's  directions  brings  him  into  the 
scope  of  safety,  into  the  presence  of  God.  "Are  truth"; 
this  does  not  mean  merely  that  they  are  true;  (the  term  is 
a  concrete  one)  ;  they  are  ihs  truth  itself,  that  is,  the  reality. 
The  moment  we  begin  to  move  in  that  path  upon  which 
God's  commandments  set  our  feet,  we  begin  to  arrive.  No 
matter  how  far  from  the  Celestial  City  we  are  when  we 
begin  our  pilgrimage,  we  are  in  its  suburbs  at  once.  The 
earnests  and  foretastes  that  we  have  are  of  the  very  nature 
of  the  blessedness  at  the  end.  The  Interpreter  whose  house 
stood  at  the  beginning  of  the  way,  is  the  Blessed  One  who 
receives  at  the  last.  The  Lord  who  calls  Himself  the  Way, 
calls  Himself  at  the  same  moment,  the  Truth.  There  is 
no  clearer  sight  of  Heavenly  realities  than  the  sight  of  Him, 
and  Heaven  itself  holds  nothing  more  precious. 

Verse  152.  "Long  have  I  known  from  Thy  testi- 
monies (themselves)  that  Thou,  unto  eternity,  hast  founded 
them." 

"Testimonies,"  moral  law,  especially  the  ten  com- 
mandments. There  is  here  something  which  goes  to  prove 
that  our  explanation  of  the  term  "testimonies"  is  correct. 
The  precepts  of  the  moral  law  are  peculiarly  self  evidencing. 


Retn  jFre&etick  Ha  Rue  mfng     359 

The  soul  in  its  healthy  state  sees  at  once  that  they  are 
right,  and  not  only  so  but  that  they  are  right  forever.  This 
impression  the  psalmist  has,  and  that  not  for  a  moment  by 
a  happy  gleam  of  insight,  or  by  being  attuned  to  them  for  a 
little  time  by  a  flash  of  high  wrought  feeling,  but  he  has 
known  it  long.  It  is  an  experience  of  his  soul — a  direct  in- 
tuition that  these  tetsimonies  are  not  for  any  temporary  pur- 
pose, any  conjuncture  of  circumstances,  which,  however  en- 
during, must  at  last  change;  but  forever.  It  is  impossible 
for  him  to  conceive  of  God's  repealing  these  laws,  they 
must  always  be  fulfilled  throughout  eternity.  The  only 
change  that  can  come  to  any  one  of  them  is  the  broadening 
of  its  scope.  It  is  in  that  way,  that  it  adjusts  itself  to 
eternal  realities.  No  matter  how  large  and  liberal  of  view 
they  may  be  who  dwell  in  the  eternal  world,  they  will  never 
look  upon  God's  testimonies  as  narrow,  nor  upon  those  as 
narrow  and  bigoted  who  in  the  spirit  obey  them.  Many 
a  true  act  of  fidelity  and  faith  has  an  element  of  the  ludicrous 
about  it,  because  the  form  that  it  takes  is  distorted  through 
misapprehension.  The  pilgrim  fathers  sent  out  an  expedition 
to  search  for  a  good  landing  place  which  was  benighted  on 
Saturday  evening  and  remained  all  that  night  and 
Sunday  night,  on  a  low  little  island,  exposed  and  un- 
sheltered in  a  cold,  pelting  storm.  They  did  so  because 
in  their  narrow  view  they  had  no  right  to  work  enough  on 
the  Sabbath  to  get  themselves  into  better  quarters.  Now,  of 
course,  there  was  in  that  an  element  of  the  literal,  unspiritual, 
legal  and  slavish.  If  there  was  only  that  in  it,  it  would 
doubtless  appear  ridiculous  to  the  enlightened  society  of 
the  upper  world.  If  they  did  it  because  they  dared  not 
do  otherwise,  or  because  custom  was  a  law  to  them,  or 
the  fear  of  their  fellows'  judgment,  then  they  did  not  do  a 
noble  thing.  If  they  did  it  through  the  fear  and  love  of  God, 
thinking  He  had  commanded  such  a  strict  observance,  then 
their  act,  so  far  forth  noble,  showed  a  pitiful  conception  of 
their  God  and  of  Christian  liberty  and  discretion.      This 


360  ^electeD  Paalmg  anD  6@onogcapJ)0 

word  "long"  implies  a  quiet  consistent  course  of  life,  for  that 
is  necessary  to  a  quiet  and  long  continued  intuition  of  the 
character  of  the  testimonies  of  God.  A  long  intuition  has 
the  force  of  geometrical  progress  in  strengthening  the  impress- 
ion. There  is  no  knowledge  like  that  with  which  the  soul 
knows  that  the  moral  law  of  God  is  an  eternal  law.  And 
he  Who  keeps  God's  testimonies  may  well  feel  that  he 
takes  hold  on  eternity.  He  who  founds  his  fortunes  on 
them  "lays  his  beams  in  music"  and  may  be  assured  that 
the  long  flight  of  ages  cannot  bring  harm  to  him  or  his. 
This  verse  seems  like  all  the  verses  of  this  stanza,  to  be 
written  in  a  spirit  of  confident  repose  in  God — a  feeling 
that  because  God  is,  He  must  be  safe.  He  seems  to 
think  that  the  main  condition  of  safety  is  to  be  in  relations 
of  communion  with  God,  and  to  properly  wait  on  Him. 
There  are  really  only  two  petitions  in  the  stanza  and  one 
(verse  149)  actually  amounts  to  a  claim.  In  this  verse  the 
psalmist  seems  to  feel  that  the  very  eternity  of  the  "testi- 
monies" ensures  his  deliverance  and  safety.  He,  by  obedi- 
ence, shares  in  their  everlastingness. 

RESH. 

Verse  153.  "See  my  sufferings  and  deliver  me;  for 
Thy  law  I  forget  not." 

Perowne  says,  "look  upon,"  or  "look  at"  would  be 
better,  for  "look  upon"  implies  both  sympathy  and  action, 
which  do  not  appear  to  be  indicated  here,  but  rather  at- 
tention to,  and  scrutiny  of  the  psalmist's  sufferings.  The 
force  of  the  word  seems  to  be  this.  Either  the  suffering  is 
too  great  for  explanation  in  words,  or  too  obscure,  or  else 
it  has  wearied  out  body  and  mind  to  that  degree  that  he 
cannot  make  himself  utter  forth  a  detailed  supplication.  He 
comes  to  God  as  to  a  physician,  who,  at  a  glance  can  see, 
what  is  the  disease,  and  can  understand  more  about  it 
than  the  patient  himself.  Taking  into  consideration  the 
next  clause,  the  tone  of  the  stanza  and  the  larger  context  of 


i&eto*  jFreDerick  £a  i&ue  Ifting     361 

the  psalm,  we  understand  this  trouble  to  be  because  of  un- 
just, wicked  and  even  traitorous  enemies;  his  enemies,  large- 
ly because  he  is  God's  friend.     Yet  we  must  always  under- 
stand the  verses  so  that  they  may  be  the  utterance  of  any 
child  of  God,  and  if  this  is  to  be  the  case  something  of  sin 
must  mingle  with  his  trouble.     The  whole  book  of  Psalms  is 
full   of  outcry  to  God  because  of  unrighteous   oppression. 
But  at  the  same  time  the  whole  book  is  full  of  confession  of 
sin,  and  the  two  are  inextricably  mingled.     It  is  sin  that  al- 
most  always  is   the   heaviest  part  of  the  burden   that  the 
psalmist  has  to  bear.     So  in  this  verse  we  must  not  exclude 
the  idea  of  wrong  doing.     When  the  psalmist  says  "see  my 
affliction,"   he   lays   himself  and  all   his  involvements   open 
before  God,  not  merely  as  a  summary  confession,  but  as 
confiding  to  His  fatherly  love,  glad  that  He  knows  his  er- 
rors, weaknesses  and  sins.      It  is  not  merely  "see  what  I 
am  suffering  for  Thee,"  but  "see  my  affliction,  sound  the 
whole  depths  of  it.     I  rejoice  to  have  Thee  know  all  even 
if  it  be  to  my  shame.     I  rejoice  to  have  a  Father  to  whom  I 
can   reveal  my   shame   since   He   can   remedy  even   that."' 
But  at  the  same  time  this  is  the  utterance  of  a  true  servant 
of  the  Highest.      He  comes  to  God  with  the   burden  of 
trials,   perplexities,   anxieties,   difficulties   and   dangers,    feel- 
ing that  they  are  not  unmixed  with  sin,  conscious  that  the 
very  mistakes  which  have  brought  so  large  a  part  of  them 
on  him  are  not  innocent  mistakes.     And  now  how  great  is 
the  comfort  of  such  a  one  to  feel  that  he  does,  after  all, 
desire  to  and  serve  his  Master.     "For  I  have  not  forgotten 
Thy  law."     How  it  helps  his  prayer  assuring  him  that  he  is 
not  a  hypocrite.      How  it  encourages  him   to  pray  when 
he  thinks  that  he  is  worth  something  to  God,  that  he  can 
look  forward  to  future  service  if  he  is  delivered,  not  because 
of  strong  resolutions  born  of  sorrow  and  gratitude,  but  be- 
cause his  past  tendency  has  been  towards  service.     If  the 
young  Solomon  wrote  this  psalm,  he  must  have  felt  a  pe- 
culiar  thrill   when   he   came   to   the  word   "law"   for   the 


362  ^electeo  psalms  and  ^onograptus 

word  was  strong  with  God  as  an  argument  for  his  deliver- 
ance, for  it  was  the  law  of  Jehovah,  the  gracious  cult — one 
might  say  the  cult  of  grace,  that  Solomon  was  appointed 
to  confirm  and  develop. 

Verse  154.  "Strive  my  strife  and  redeem  me;  as  to 
Thy  word,  quicken  me." 

In  the  preceding  verse  he  lays  himself  and  his  woe 
before  God  for  investigation  and  for  deliverance.  Here 
very  much  the  same  tone  of  weariness  finds  expression. 
"Strive  my  strife,"  "fight  for  me."  This  indicates  the 
nature  of  the  trouble  that  oppresses  him.  It  is  the  opposi- 
tion of  enemies.  This  also  takes  the  word  "quicken"  out 
of  the  mere  mental  and  moral  sphere  and  gives  it  an  objective 
meaning — save  my  life.  "As  to  Thy  word."  This  is 
generally  translated  "according  to  Thy  word."  In  saying 
this  last  which  is  so  often  done  in  this  psalm  another  preposi- 
tion is  used.  The  word  "promise"  to  Solomon  was  the 
throne,  but  again  and  again  has  the  psalmist  pleaded  the 
promise  as  securing  another  good  on  the  ground  that  the 
promise  implied  it.  It  may  seem  an  over  refinement  to 
make  the  expression  here  mean  anything  else.  But  the 
expression  is  strikingly  different,  and  when  we  consider  how 
wayworn  and  discouraged  the  believer  sometimes  becomes, 
how  pressed  nigh  to  being  overwhelmed  with  the  trials  and 
dangers,  with  the  temptation  of  the  evil  one  and  the 
troubles  that  he  and  his  bring  upon  us,  may  not  this  change 
of  expression  betoken  a  state  of  mind  in  which  the  Chris- 
tan's  great  hope,  while  not  given  up,  becomes  dim,  and  the 
present  anguish  is  very  pressing,  when  strength  seems  about 
to  give  way  and  we  are  about  to  be  crushed.  Then  in- 
stead of  appealing  to  the  great  hope  that  all  troubles  may 
be  swept  away,  we  ask  for  help  in  our  troubles  in  order 
that  we  may  keep  fast  hold  of  the  great  hope.  "Thou 
hast  promised  me  a  throne  and  eternal  glory,  at  least  per- 
form part  of  Thy  promise,  and  deliver  me  from  my  pressing 
misery.  It  certainly  suits  the  air  of  exhaustion  and  fainting 
struggle  that  pervades  this  stanza. 


I&eth  jFteoeticb  La  Eue  fting     363 

Verse  155.  "Far  from  the  wicked  (is)  salvation, 
because  Thy  statutes  they  seek  not." 

Salvation  it  may  be  presumed  is  what  the  wicked  seek 
for.  Salvation,  that  is,  what  they  understand  to  be  salva- 
tion, all  men  seek  for.  The  crowd  on  Palm  Sunday  hailed 
Christ  as  the  bringer  of  salvation,  and  yet  they  desired  not 
the  salvation  He  brought.  They  desired  a  partial  salva- 
tion that  contradicted  itself.  We  must  have  a  whole  salva- 
tion or  none  at  all.  The  wicked  desire  to  be  saved  only 
from  certain  evils  that  they  understand.  But  true  salva- 
tion keeps  out  of  their  reach  like  a  rainbow  pursued.  "Seek" 
in  the  second  clause,  explains  "far"  in  the  first.  The  wicked 
are  far  from  salvation  though  they  seek  it,  because  they  do 
not  seek  for  more,  than  the  attainment  of  a  certain  limited 
good.  If  they  only  sought  God's  statutes — his  priceless 
orders,  in  other  words  if  they  only  sought  Him,  He  would 
be  near  them  (verse  151)  and  so  salvation  would  be 
near.  "Salvation"  may  mean  any  kind  of  deliverance  or 
blessing.  The  salvation  sought  by  the  psalmist  is  deliver- 
ance from  his  enemies,  from  the  tyranny  and  tyrannical  temp- 
tations of  men,  who  are  seeking  for  liberty,  power  and  self 
gratification  by  trying  to  thwart  God's  purposes  for  good 
and  to  crush  him  who  has  been  appointed  to  be  His  minis- 
ter. These  tyrannical  oppressors  of  the  psalmist  had  the 
name  of  being  free,  he  had  the  name  of  being  perceuted  and 
despised.  And  yet  it  is  remarkable  that,  pained  and  tried  as 
he  is  and  exposed  to  fearful  dangers,  he  looks  upon  his 
enemies  with  a  kind  of  pity  as  upon  those  who  in  their 
very  attack  are  seeking  a  salvation  which  they  can  never 
attain. 

"The  sensual  and  the  dark  rebel  in  vain, 
Slaves  by  their  own  compulsion  in  mad  game 
On  their  bars  and  manacles  they  wear  the  name 
Of  freedom  graven  on  a  heavier  chain." 


364  ^eiectea  Psalms  anD  ^onogtapfjs 

If  we  do  not  seek  the  orders  of  God  we  put  ourselves 
in  the  way  of  the  orders  of  men;  and  what  orders  are  they? 

Verse  156.  "Many  are  Thy  compassions  Jehovah, 
according  to  Thy  judgments   quicken  me." 

This  is  something  different  from  saying  "Thy  com- 
passion is  great";  the  point  is  that  God's  compassion  is 
manifold.  It  is  not  always  the  man  of  strong  and  deep 
compassion  that  can  sympathize.  The  compassion  of  men 
is  narrow.  One  man  may  have  a  sympathy  with  you — a 
fellow  feeling  on  one  matter,  and  yet  be  totally  unable  to 
understand  and  so  compassionate  other  troubles.  One  rea- 
son why  women  are  more  compassionate  than  men  is  be- 
cause their  sympathies  are  wider.  The  father  may  sym- 
pathize with  and  feel  compassion  for  his  daughter  in  any 
physical  or  itellectual  want,  but  what  does  he  know  of 
the  cravings  of  a  young  girl's  heart.  And  even  the  com- 
passions of  a  mother  often  fail  her  daughter,  because  she 
lacks  knowledge  or  else  is  narrow  hearted.  Man's  com- 
passions reach  but  a  little  way;  they  are  not  multiform 
enough  to  meet  all  the  carying  states  of  mind  and  heart  of 
their  fellows.  God's  compassions  are  manifold  exceedingly. 
"According  to  Thy  judgments"  plainly  indicates  that  he 
desires  that  God  should  do  justice  to  him  and  upon  his 
enemies,  and  does  not  permit  us  to  give  "quicken"  the 
meaning  of  "rouse  spiritually."  It  must  mean  deliver  my 
life.  And  yet  the  meaning  we  have  given  to  "many"  would 
indicate  more  than  one  kind  of  trouble  to  be  delivered  from 
— not  only  death  but  something  else — many  other  things 
besides.  The  strict  meaning  can  be  kept  however,  by 
considering  that  the  psalmist  mentions  the  multiform  nature 
of  God's  compassions,  to  enable  him  to  feel  that  even  such 
a  one  as  he  may  find  compassion.  "Thou  dost  compassion- 
ate many  sorts  of  people,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  good 
and  bad,  then  I  too  may  find  compassion."  Or  the  psalm- 
ist may  say  to  himself,  "I  ought  to  stand  up  and  fight, 
I  ought  not  to  fear.     If  I  was  courageous  I  would  be  in  no 


ifteto*  jFre&ericfe  JLa  iRue  I&ittg     365 

danger.  But  I  lack  courage,  I  cannot  fight;  God  can  feel 
for  a  poor  timid  one,  though  he  is  so  strong.  Thy  com- 
passions are  manifold  save  me."  The  soul  may  believe 
that  there  is  no  real  danger,  and  yet  may  fear  the  danger 
all  the  same,  like  a  timid  woman  who  knows  she  is  foolish, 
and  yet  appeals  to  one  who  will  not  rebuke  her  foolish 
fears.  Take  for  example  a  spirtual  assault.  "Resist,"  the 
apostle  says,  and  that  is  the  privilege  of  the  Christian,  but 
he  is  not  shut  up  to  it.  He  who  rules  over  all  spirits  as 
irresistibly  as  over  physical  nature,  can  yet  sympathize  with, 
and  have  compassion  for  the  weakness  and  weariness  of  one 
who  has  tried  unavailingly  to  resist.  Even  though  such  a 
soul  may  blame  itself  for  its  weakness,  it  may  appeal  con- 
fidently to  God's  justice  against  its  enemies.  They  deserve 
rebuke,  and  for  itself,  justice  often  expresses  itself  by  com- 
passion. "And  Joseph  her  husband,  being  a  righteous  man," 
(Matt.  1  :  19).  And  then  our  Blessed  Lord,  under  whose 
especial  guardianship  we  are,  remembers  that,  He  was  in  the 
garden,  weak  and  wearied  and  well  nigh  over  watched, 
needing  the  ministry  of  an  angel  to  give  Him  comfort  and 
to  add  to  His  strength. 

Verse  157.  "Many  (are)  my  persecutors;  and  op- 
pressors; from  Thy  testimonies  I  decline  not." 

Many  and  therefore  mighty.  There  is  a  cumulative 
force  in  oppositions  and  trials  that  are  numerous.  And 
number  is  also  daunting  out  of  proportion  to  its  real  power. 
"Many"  may  also  mean  many  kinds.  This  is  suggested  by 
the  preceding  verse.  If  all  our  adversaries  were  of  one 
kind  we  might  learn  how  to  deal  with  them,  and  how  to 
endure  them.  But  it  puzzles  the  wits  and  strains  the  temper 
to  be  tried  by  many  sorts  of  men  and  in  many  ways.  The 
trials  of  a  housekeeper  with  servants  is  in  point  here.  Hardly 
anything  is  more  harassing  to  mind  and  nerves.  The  words 
"persecutors  and  oppressors"  are  happily  chosen.  The  first 
indicates  one  who  makes  it  his  sleepless  aim  to  annoy  and 
injure   you.      The   second,    one   who   has   acquired   power 


366  ^electeD  psalms  and  ^onogtapljs 

over  you  and  uses  it  to  annoy  and  injure  you.  If  we  may 
continue  the  illustration  of  the  housekeeper  we  would  in- 
stance an  influential  guest  in  a  boarding  house  who  is  inimi- 
cal to  its  head  as  a  combination  of  a  persecutor  and  an 
oppressor.  "Testimonies" — the  moral  law.  "I  decline 
not."  I  do  not  swerve.  I  am  not  forced  or  induced  to 
go  in  the  least  aside  from  what  seems  to  my  conscience  right, 
notwithstanding  these  oppressors  and  persecutors.  These 
may  gain  their  aim  if  they  can  induce  or  force  me  to  some 
compliance  in  a  matter  they  may  think  desirable.  I  resist, 
but  I  must  be  careful  how  I  resist.  I  am  asked  to  do 
something  that  infringes  upon  one  commandment,  but  I  may 
refuse  in  such  a  way  as  to  infringe  upon  another.  I  must 
not  forget  the  law  of  kindness;  I  must  not  treat  them  un- 
justly.. I  must  not  show  wrong  feeling  of  any  kind.  It  is 
a  great  attainment  to  resist  our  enemies  and  the  Lord's  and 
still  to  love  them.  And  yet  it  is  very  easy  to  "decline"  to 
yield.  The  force  of  the  temptation  is  to  be  measured  not 
merely  by  the  number  and  variety  of  the  persecutors  and 
oppressors,  but  by  the  smallness  of  the  concession  demanded. 
It  is  hard  to  make  a  servant  of  God  retrace  his  steps  and  give 
up  his  service,  but  it  is  quite  another  matter  to  make  him 
swerve,  and  to  effect  that  swerving  when  the  persecutors 
and  oppressors  of  the  world  set  themselves  to  accomplish  it. 
They  will  be  satisfied  with  that  little  concession;  it  does 
not  involve  anything  essential;  it  is  only  a  form,  a  manner 
of  doing  a  thing,  the  softening  of  an  expression,  an  omis- 
sion. But  God's  servants  should  remember  that  a  swerving 
aside  is  a  switching  off.  It  is  a  beginning  to  leave  His  ser- 
vice altogether.  Yield  not  an  inch  should  be  our  motto. 
The  correlation  of  the  clauses  implies  that  the  persecution 
and  oppression  would  cease  at  once  if  he  only  would  swerve, 
but  he  feels  that  peace  would  be  bought  at  too  heavy  a 
price.  To  the  hasty  reader,  the  latter  clause  may  appear 
but  a  self  complacent  and  perhaps  self  righteous  assertion  of 
the   psalmist's  merits.      It  is  however   to  be  regarded  not 


Eeto*  jFreUerick  Jta  I&ue  Mn&     367 

merely  as  describing  his  action  in  the  present,  but  as  ex- 
pressing the  firmest  resolution  for  the  future.  The  present 
in  common  parlance  often  has  this  force. 

Verse  158.  "I  see  traitors  and  am  filled  with  loath- 
ing,  (those)  who  Thy  saying  keep  not." 

By  traitors  does  not  mean  those  merely  who  have 
treacherous  dispositions,  but  those  who  are  manifestly  acting 
treacherously  by  their  failing  to  keep  God's  "saying."  There 
is  no  manifestation  of  fear  of  the  traitors,  they  do  not  seem 
to  be  aiming  at  himself.  Or  if  these  traitors  are  the  perse- 
cutors and  oppressors  of  the  previous  verse,  any  feeling  of 
fear  or  dread  is  swallowed  up  in  disgust  at  their  treachery. 
His  disgust  comes  to  the  aid  of  his  conscience  and  causes 
him  to  cling  more  closely  to  the  service  they  have  forsaken 
(see  verse  159).  "Saying"  is  the  promise  of  God.  In 
the  case  of  the  Jews  it  is  easy  to  see  how  failure  to  look  to 
this  promise  as  their  only  hope,  and  allow  it  to  govern  their 
lives  involved  broken  faith.  They  were  God's  people, 
whose  very  choice  involved  a  promise.  Their  nationality 
and  patriotism  consisted  in  an  adherence  to  that  promise. 
They  had  become  participants  in  the  partial  realization  of 
that  promise  that  their  national  life  afforded.  Every  tie  of 
honor,  loyalty  and  gratitude  bound  them  to  a  close  adher- 
ence to  that  promise,  and  to  labor  for  its  full  realization. 
These  men  were  labouring  against  that  realization  when 
from  the  pettiest  and  most  contemptible  of  motives — "the 
shrieks  of  locality" — they  secretly  strove  to  undermine  Da- 
vid's great  political  aims  and  theocratic  policy.  Many  dis- 
loyal men  have  been  still  noble  and  honourable,  they  were 
contemptible  and  disgusting. 

Verse  159.  "See  how  I  love  Thy  precepts  Jehovah; 
according  to  Thy  loving  kindness  quicken  me." 

Both  here  and  in  verse  1 5  6,  any  idea  of  spiritual 
rousing  seems  to  be  excluded  from  the  petition  of  the  second 
clause.  "According  to  Thy  judgments"  (verse  156)  could 
not  mean  rouse  me  spiritually  after  the  fashion  of  Thy  vin- 


368  ^electeti  psalms  and  ^onograp&s 

dictive  judgments;  and  hear  the  petition — quicken  me — is 
preceded  by  the  statement  of  the  psalmist  that  he  is  spiritually 
alive,  at  least  filled  with  love  for  God's  precepts.  "Pre- 
cepts" are — the  law  as  work  assigned.  He  loves  the 
duties  God  has  appointed  for  him  because  he  loves  God, 
not  because  he  likes  them.  This  verse  is  truly  lyric.  It  is 
not,  "according  to  Thy  judgments" — as  I  deserve  because  I 
love,  but  according  to  Thy  loving  kindness.  He  pleads  his 
love  not  as  a  merit,  but  as  something  that  will  move  God's 
compassions.  "Permit  me  not  to  be  taken  from  the  work 
I  love."  So  in  verse  156  he  says  "according  to  Thy  judg- 
ments," but  that  is  preceded  by  assigning  God's  compas- 
sions as  a  reason  why  His  judgments  should  awake.  Love 
of  God's  work  does  not  constrain  God  to  continue  us  in 
it.  It  is  of  His  mercy  that  we  are  allowed  to  exercise  our 
highest  aspirations.  We  can  however  appeal  to  God's  wont 
— he  does  exercise  compassion  in  this  way. 

Verse  1  60.     "The  head  of  Thy  word  (is)  truth,  and 
to  eternity  (is)  every  judgment  of  Thy  righteousness." 

The  word  "head"  in  Hebrew  has  much  the  same  sig* 
nificatior.s  as  the  word  in  English.  It  indicates  what  is  the 
most  striking  and  important  characteristic  of  a  thing.  "Truth" 
is  not  truthfulness,  but  reality,  fact  in  its  largest  sense,  and 
the  meaning  of  the  statement  is  that  the  most  striking  and 
important  characteristic  of  the  promise  is  its  consistency  with 
truth  and  fact.  The  promise  to  Abraham  had  this  charac- 
teristic. It  was  no  act  of  partiality.  It  was  in  accordance 
with  God's  duty  as  Creator  towards  all  His  creatures.  The 
calling  of  Abraham  was  but  the  confiding  to  him  and  his 
race  of  a  ministry  for  the  salvation  of  mankind.  It  is  not  in- 
consistent with  the  great  fact  of  God's  Fatherhood  as  Cre- 
ator. Again  the  promise  of  Solomon  to  the  throne  was  no 
act  of  partiality,  that  too,  was  "truth,"  and  the  psalmist,  (if 
Solomon  must  have  been  strengthened  in  his  reliance  on 
the  promise,  by  the  knowledge  that  not  for  his  own  sake 
but  for  the  sake  of  his  people  he  was  chosen.     He  could 


Eetn  jfreDerick  La  I&ue  l&ing     369 

feel  that  it  was  what  ought  to  be,  what  the  long  ages 
would  not  discredit,  that  it  was  for  his  people's  best  in- 
terests and  that  their  best  interests  would  subserve  higher 
interests  yet.  The  promise  of  the  Gospel  to  the  sinner 
has  many  characteristics.  It  is  gracious,  it  is  beneficent  and 
compassionate,  but  its  most  striking  and  important  character- 
istic is  its  accordance  with  the  truth  of  things.  The  "head" 
fact  of  the  Gospel  is  the  death  of  the  son  of  God  that  great 
submission  to  inexorable  fact  and  truth  on  the  part  of  God. 
So  important  is  this  that  St.  Paul  says  that  Christ  was  sent 
to  make  an  exhibition  on  the  cross  of  God's  adherence  to 
truth  in  his  plan  for  the  salvation  of  men  (Rom.  3:25  and 
26,)  to  show  that  He  could  be  inexorably  just  and  yet 
be  able  to  exercise  to  the  utmost  His  infinite  pity  and  loving 
kindness  towards  the  sinner.  All  this  is  strengthened  if  we 
give  to  the  second  clause  its  correlative  office.  There  could 
hardly  be  a  stronger  assertion  of  the  fact  that  the  judgements 
of  God's  righteousness  are  in  accordance  with  the  truth  of 
things,  than  to  say  that  they  are  for  eternity — that  they  will 
never  be  reversed.  And  this  reinforces  the  first  clause  when 
we  consider  the  promise  to  Abraham  was  a  judgment  upon 
the  nations  around.  The  promise  to  Solomon  was  a  judg- 
ment upon  his  persecutors  and  slanderers  and  all  the  tribe  of 
plotters  who  would  thwart  God's  purpose  in  the  calling  of 
David  to  the  throne,  and  retard  the  movement  of  his  people 
towards  the  goal  of  grace.  And  may  it  not  be  that  the 
salvation  of  those  who  will  be  saved  is  on  its  other  side  die 
condemnation  of  those  who  will  be  lost.  If  so  who  can 
complain  that  it  is  "to  eternity?" 

SHIN. 

Verse  161.  "Princes  persecuted  me  without  cause — 
and  at  Thy  words  my  heart  is  awed."  This  is  one  of  the 
verses  that  give  a  personal,  individual  form  to  the  psalm, 
and  seem  to  require  the  ascertaining  of  the  author  and,  at 


370  Selected  psalm*  anD  ^onograp&s 

least,  guiding  the  interpretation  by  his  peculiar  character  and 
circumstances.  The  plural  number  strongly  indicates  Solo- 
mon. It  was  a  league  of  princes,  and  that  not  trying  to 
oppose,  to  thwart,  but  trying  to  injure  maliciously.  Cer- 
tainly he  whom  princes  leagued  against  was  not  one  of  the 
little  ones  on  earth.  They  could  not  crush  him,  they  could 
only  persecute,  annoy  and  injure.  "Without  cause"  does 
not  mean  that  they  had  no  reason  for  it.  There  was  reason 
enough.  There  was  reason  why  his  brothers  and  their  sat- 
allites  should  pursue  Solomon.  The  very  fact  that  he  per- 
sisted in  his  claim  as  against  them,  or  with  his  claim  conceded 
did  not  allow  himself  to  be  used  to  thwart  the  Davidic 
policy,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  was  enough  to  rouse  malev- 
olence. The  persecutions  of  these  princes  consisted  prob- 
ably in  false  accusations — not  only  false,  but  insincere. 
Their  action  was  merely  factious.  They  could  not  pursue 
their  main  aim;  they  had  failed  in  that,  and  were  now  striv- 
ing to  injure  on  false  pretense.  Our  Lord  was  treated  in 
the  same  way.  His  real  offence  could  not  be  presented 
before  the  tribunal  that  tried  him.  He  was  persecuted  with- 
out cause.  And  so  it  is  with  every  child  of  God,  the  enemy 
almost  always  gets  up  a  false  issue  in  order  that  he  may  per- 
secute. The  words  imply  intense,  sleepless  manevolence 
ever  watching  and  ready  for  the  assault.  Naturally  the 
psalmist  would  be  occupied  with  the  thought  of  his  danger. 
Few  persons,  even  the  most  hardy,  have  been  able  to  resist 
a  constant  wear  on  the  nerves  like  this.  Men  who  could 
stand  up  against  one  great  danger,  one  great  strain,  will  at 
last  break  down  under  a  continual  pressure,  like  a  string 
that  could  very  well  stand  a  great  strain,  but  would,  in  a 
little  while,  be  worn  asunder.  It  is  not  said  that  he  is  calm 
under  the  trial.  He  is  filled  with  another  feeling — awe  at 
the  words  of  God.  Two  awes  cannot  be  felt  at  once. 
The  superior  must  predominate  and  cast  out  the  other,  and 
especially  when  one  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  contradicts 
the  other.     The  fear  of  man  contradicts  the  fear  of  God, 


iftetn  jfreoeticfe  JLa  I&ue  ifting     371 

and  vice  versa.  The  words  must,  of  course,  mean  the  writ- 
ten word  of  God.  There  seems  to  be  an  imaginative  con- 
ception of  God  as  a  prince  on  a  throne,  and  the  psalmist 
standing  in  His  presence  and  hearing  him  speak.  It  might 
be  going  too  far  (although  the  strict  correlation  would  seem 
to  require  it)  to  make  the  psalmist  conceive  the  words  of 
these  haughty  persecutors,  and  slanderers,  and  wicked  op- 
posers,  God's  messages  to  the  Christians.  We  may  be 
striving  with  all  our  might  to  serve  God,  but  sin  mingles  in 
our  working.  Pride,  and  self  seeking,  and  an  unloving 
spirit  mar  our  work  and  make  it  offensive  to  others,  or  at 
least,  give  others  an  occasion  against  us;  and  one  of  God's 
ways  to  recall  us  to  ourselves  and  to  consider  our  ways, 
is  to  allow  our  faults  to  bring  punishment  on  us.  We  may 
well  then  hear  and  be  awed  by  God's  words  in  the  words  of 
our  persecutors  and  slanderers.  Well  for  the  church  had 
she  heard  God's  words  in  the  shout  of  "Allah"  which  an- 
nounced the  Mohammedan  attack!  Well  for  her  had  she 
seen  in  it  not  merely  a  new  and  terrible  danger,  to  be  self- 
righteously  resisted,  but  a  reproof  and  warning  from  God, 
to  repent,  to  cast  her  ilols  to  the  moles  and  bats,  and  to 
turn  to  Him  in  spiritual  worship  and  love. 

Verse  1 62.  "I  (am)  rejoicing  over  Thy  saying,  like 
one  finding  much  spoil." 

The  strict  present  strongly  asserts  the  constant  habit  of 
his  mind  with  reference  to  the  promise  of  God — the  special 
promise  to  the  psalmist.  We  must  suppose  a 
special  promise  or  the  poetry  becomes  too  vague  to  have  a 
personal  root.  At  the  same  time  the  great  promise  of  God 
to  His  people  must  be  meant  or  the  psalm  lacks  its  poetry 
and  thus  becomes  unfit  for  the  general  use  of  God's  people. 
If  this  is  a  promise  to  an  expectant  king,  then  we  see  how 
the  special  promise  could  be  a  general  promise.  And  here 
is  made  the  transition  to  the  case  of  the  child  of  God  in  any 
age.     For  all  Israel,  with  its  economy  and  history,  is  but 


372  Selected  Psalms  ana  6£onograp&* 

the  germ  of  a  better  economy  and  covenant.  Thus,  even 
the  psalmist,  in  his  rejoicing  over  the  personal  promise  to 
him,  could  rise  to  higher  and  higher  spheres  of  rejoicing  as 
its  effects  widen  to  his  contemplation  like  concentre  rings  in 
the  water  when  a  stone  is  dropped  into  it.  The  stress  of  the 
simile  in  the  second  clause  may  be  made  to  depend  on  the 
word  "spoil."  Then  the  intensity  of  the  rejoicing  over  the 
promise  is  measured  by  the  intensity  with  which  one  would 
rejoice  to  find  unexpectedly  a  treasure.  But  the  stress  may 
be  laid  on  "finding."  Then  construing  the  participle  the 
same  way,  "I  am  constantly  rejoicing,  like  one  who  is  con- 
stantly finding."  And  this  interpretation  of  the  second  clause 
is  needed  if  we  make  the  first  a  strict  present.  Constant 
rejoicing  implies  constant  finding — constant  novelty  and  sur- 
prise. And  here  it  may  be  said  that  this  holds  true  of  all 
truth,  of  all  fact,  indeed.  We  grow  familiar  with  the  most 
astonishing  fact,  the  most  wondrous  statement  of  truth. 
Feeling  is  evanescent  in  its  nature  and  can  only  be  fed  by 
novelty.  The  fact  that  feeling  towards  a  person  is  perma- 
nent is  nothing  against  this;  for  a  person  is  the  source  of  con- 
stant novelty.  The  object  of  love  is  an  ever-changing  ob- 
ject, it  follows  that  if  we  would  ever  rejoice  over  the  promise 
we  must  ever  find  new  things  in  it.  And  to  do  that  we 
must  constantly  apply  it  to  our  ever-varying  circumstances 
and  carry  it  out  into  the  breadth  of  all  things.  Thus  the 
presence  (v.  161)  of  persecutors  and  slanderers  would  tend 
to  make  the  promise  ever  fresh  and  new. 

Verse  1 63.      "Falsehood  I  hate  and  abhor;  Thy  Law 
I  love. 

"Falsehood  is  not  so  much  untruthfulness  as  the  thing 
that  is  untrue — the  thing  that  promises  much  and  leads  to 
nothing  or  worse.  This  interpretation  of  the  word  agrees 
with  that  of  "Law"  in  the  second  clause — the  concrete 
promise  of  the  old  cult  which  in  its  own  self  realizes  so  much 
and  holds  forth  so  much  more.     "Hate"  has  reference  to 


ftetn  JFreDerick  La  Eue  ftinjj     373 

the  spirit  in  Which  this  false  thing  is  held  forth  for  acceptance 
and  "abhor"  is  used  with  reference  to  the  thing  itself  and  its 
results.  The  lures  used,  the  baits  proposed  are  falehood, 
they  will  afford  no  real  advantage,  and  the  system  which  is 
wished  to  advance  by  the  compliance  of  the  psalmist  is 
falsehood  also.  The  law  on  the  contrary  yields  immediate 
and  personal  advantages  while  holding  forth  future  blessings 
to  himself  through  the  blessing  upon  all  God's  people.  He, 
therefore,  loves  it  in  the  sense  of  liking  it.  It  is,  besides,  an 
expression  of  love  throughout — the  love  of  God  for  his 
people  and,  therfore,  also  he  loves  it.  These  two  meanings 
of  the  word  love  correspond  to  "abhor"  and  "hate"  of  the 
first  clause.  Then  again,  the  system  of  the  law  up- 
held and  would  develop — the  law  in  its  fuller  extension  of 
the  time  of  David  was  truth — tended  to  real  and  blessed 
results  therefore  he  loved  it.  This  verse  is  a  good  example 
of  the  correllation  of  clauses.  The  strength  of  the  expres- 
sions of  the  first  clause  should  be  deeply  considered  by 
us.  They  are  not  the  impulsive  utterance  of  deep  emotion, 
but  the  well-considered  expressions  proper  to  the  servant  of 
God  of  all  ages.  We  ought  to  demand  of  ourselves  the 
same  hate  and  abhorrence  of  sin— of  sin  considered  as 
"falsehood,"  for  that  is  the  special  meaning  here.  This 
may  well  be  after  we  have  experienced  the  effects  of  that 
sin  after  yielding  to  temptation.  But  this  clause  is  not  to  be 
taken  alone.  "Hate"  and  "abhorrence"  to  be  worthy  in 
its  character  of  an  enduring  defence  against  temptation, 
must  be  accompanied  by  love  to  the  law — that  is,  love  of 
the  means  of  grace — all  the  ordinances  of  the  Christian  cult. 
Else  it  is  a  mere  fright  or  disgust  that  will  vanish  with  the 
remembrance  of  the  disagreeable  occurrence  with  the  re- 
newal of  the  temptation.  And  this  love  for  the  means  of 
grace  is  necessary  to  ennoble  this  hate  and  abhorrence,  to 
make  it  a  true  hatred  of  sin  and  not  merely  of  the  sinner  and 
certain  of  his  acts  that  have  been  injurious  and  to  prevent 
its  running  into  bigotry  and  intolerance  or  mere  revengeful 


374  Selected  psalms  ano  t^cmograplrs 

feeling,  as  has  been  die  case  too  much  on  the  part  of  Prot- 
estants toward  the  Roman  Catholics.  Well  for  the  Church 
of  God  if  such  a  holy  hate  and  abhorrence  of  sin  could  per- 
vade its  members.  The  tone  nowadays  is  rather  one  of  sym- 
pathy with  sin.  Prisons  are  rapidly  becoming  hospitals, 
and  the  sword  that  the  magistrate  bears  for  the  defence  of 
society  he  is  not  permitted  to  use  upon  the  offender. 

Verse  1 64.  "Seven  times  a  day  I  praise  Thee,  for 
the  judgments  of  Thy  righteousness."  "Seven  times,"  that 
is  very  often — indicates  strong  reason  for  praise.  In  v. 
62  he  rises  at  midnight  to  thank  God  for  the  judgments  of 
this  righteousness — so  strong  is  his  thankfulness  that  it  dis- 
turbs his  rest.  Here  it  breaks  in  upon  all  the  cares  and  oc- 
cupations of  the  day;  and  in  spite  of  all  the  other  things  that 
demand  attention.  Night  and  day  he  thinks  of  God's 
judgments.  It  may  not  be  hypocritical  to  notice  that  thank- 
fulness at  night,  When  despondency  is  apt  to  fill  the  heart, 
and  praise  during  the  day,  when  so  many  objects  claim  our 
attention  and  trust,  is  peculiarly  strong.  This  whole  stanza 
seems  to  be  full  of  the  presence  of  God  and  acknowledgment 
to  Him.  And  in  these  first  four  verses,  though  there  seems 
to  be  a  reference  to  the  presence  of  enemies,  the  rejoicing  of 
v.  1 62  is  stimulated  by  that  presence,  the  hate  and  abhor- 
rence of  v.  1  63  indicates  that  presence,  and  here  his  praise 
to  God  for  His  judgments  has  its  root  in  his  danger,  "Para- 
dise is  under  the  shadow  of  swords."  The  judgments  of 
the  past,  the  terrible  overthrows,  the  startling  deliverances, 
are  his  protection.  They  make  him  safe,  they  prevent  his 
enemies  from  doing  what  they  wish.  They  also  make 
him  secure.  He  may  feel  safe  when  he  thinks  that  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  do  right.  He  will  intervene 
if  there  is  any  need  of  intervention  to  prevent  His  promise 
failing.  Or,  perhaps,  that  last  remark  is  not  strict  enough, 
for  the  masculine  form  for  righteousness  is  used,  and  judg- 
ment of  His  righteousness  does  not  mean  judgments  for  the 
purpose   of   carrying   out   faithfully   His   engagements;    but 


metn  4FreDecick  JLa  Hue  ming     375 

rather  judgments  that  are  in  accordance  with  His  righteous 
character  as  Ruler  and  Judge.  Rapidly  and  surely  was 
this  confidence  in  God's  judgments  justified  in  the  case  of 
the  young  Solomon.  Like  a  dream  past  was  his  painful 
tutelage  and  weary  sojourn  in  his  father's  house.  When 
the  time  was  most  critical  and  all  seemed  to  be  lost,  he  at- 
tained at  once  the  summit  of  his  hopes.  Happy  are  they 
who  feel  that  their  enemies  are  in  the  wrong,  and  who  can 
appeal  to  God's  justice  to  defend  them,  who  dare  to  say 
"Judge  me,  O  Lord."  We  should  be  ever  about  our 
Father's  business  so  that,  if  we  are  interrupted  therein — 
(or  perhaps  it  is  better  to  say)  we  should  sanctify  our 
whole  lives  even  its  refreshments  and  enjoyments  that  we 
may  feel  that  our  paradise  is  under  the  shelter  of  God's 
sword  of  justice.  We  should  not  be  unmindful  of  the  ene- 
mies of  this  world,  who  ever  stand  ready  to  attack  him 
who  bears  witness  for  God.  Civilization  or  enlightenment 
will  not  shelter  us.  Our  only  safety  is  that  God  never 
will  permit  the  "rod  of  the  wicked"  to  rest  "  on  the  lot  of 
the  righteous."  He  will,  he  is  bound  to  see  the  right  done. 
Also  we  should  not  be  unmindful  of  the  evil  spiritual  ene- 
mies that  surround  us,  and  think  often  of  the  saying  of  the 
Saviour,  that  "the  Prince  of  this  world  is  judged."  It 
may  be  that  the  very  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
will  yet  send  a  thrill  of  joy  and  exultation  through  our  hearts 
"Commit  thy  way  unto  the  Lord;  trust  also  in  Him,  and 
He  shall  make  thy  righteousness  to  go  forth  as  the  light, 
and  thy  judgment  as  the  noonday." 

Verse  165.  "(There  is  much  peace  to  the  lovers  of 
Thy  law,  and  there  is  to  them  no  stumbling  block.)"  The 
connection  between  this  verse  and  the  one  before  it,  is  not 
far  to  seek.  There  is  one  thing  that  breaks  up  the  security 
set  forth  in  verse  1  64,  it  is  sin — let  a  person  feel  sinful  and 
it  is  hard  to  appeal  to  God's  justice  in  his  behalf,  or  to 
wait  secure  at  its  exercise.  It  may,  however,  be  done. 
David  again  and  again  appeals  confidently  to  God's  justice 


376  g>electe&  psalms  ana  aponograpijs 

and  claims  that  he  is  righteous  when  at  the  same  time  ac- 
knowledges that  he  is  not  without  fault — fault  even  in  the 
things  whereof  he  is  accused.  He  can  rejoice  in  God's 
righteous  judgments,  for  his  faults  are  exaggerated  by  the 
tongues  of  enemies.  God  will  judge  him  fairly.  It  is  better 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  God  than  into  the  hands  of  men. 
Then  again,  the  real  fault,  in  their  eyes,  was  something 
very  different  from  what  they  accused  him  of.  He  was 
really  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ,  though  accused  of  a 
sin.  This  is  what  secured  him.  It  enabled  him  to  look 
to  God  confidently  for  defense.  He  was  jealous  for  God; 
that  brought  him  into  difficulties,  that  enabled  him  to  be  at 
peace  in  the  midst  of  them.  Still  it  requires  strong  faith  to 
overlook  our  own  errors  in  action  or  courses  of  action  that 
are  indicated  by  the  highest  motives.  Now,  then,  if  there  is 
anything  that  will  eliminate  errors  from  our  working  for 
God  it  is  the  love  of  God's  law.  It  is  love  of  self  that  so 
often  smirches  our  best  work,  self-seeking,  often  latent,  when 
we  are  trying  to  serve  God.  Simple  and  single  love  will 
enable  one  to  escape  the  stumbling  blocks  that  lie  in  the  way 
of  one  who  would  originate,  or  develop,  or  carry  on  a 
movement  that  pertains  to  the  economy  of  God's  home.  It  is 
mortifying  that  a  man  with  a  great  purpose  and  with  great 
energy  should  ever  have  cause  to  blush  and  ever  seriously 
be  hampered  by  little  faults.  Hearty  love  for  the  work 
will  make  a  man  meek  and  single  in  his  aim.  It  will  ren- 
der a  man  so  far  forth  as  the  object  of  his  love,  well-nigh 
perfect.  What  is  true  of  a  servant  of  God  in  public  sta- 
tion, with  reference  to  public  work  and  work  for  God  is 
true  as  well  of  those  whose  lives  are  obscure,  and  whose 
work  that  of  private  life.  If  we  would  have  peace,  we  must 
avoid  sin,  and  if  we  would  avoid  sin  we  must  avoid  occasions 
to  sin,  not  by  departing  from  the  life  that  affords  occasion — 
but  by  importing  into  our  lives  that  love  which  will  render 
temptation  no  temptation  at  all.  Many  stumbling  blocks  lie  in 
the  way  of  one  whose  love  is  not  fixed  upon  his  wife.     With 


I&etn  ^Frederick  JLa  IRue  ifting     377 

every  attractive  person  he  meets  his  affections  begin  to  wan- 
der. But  if  his  heart  is  fixed  where  his  affections  are  due, 
temptation  of  that  sort  becomes  the  very  reverse  of  temp- 
tation. The  eye  does  not  see;  the  ear  does  not  hear,  like 
Madiline  in  the  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  "hoodwinked  by  faery 
fancy,"  alive  only  to  that  which  is  absent,  that  which  is 
beyond  and  above  what  the  eye  sees  and  the  ear  hears. 
There  is  little  need  for  such  a  person  to  be  careful  and 
cautious. 

"Love  is  an  unerring  light 
And  joy  its   own   security." 

The  tithing  of  mint,  anise  and  cummin  will  never  en- 
able us  to  render  acceptable  service  to  God  or  ever  keep  us 
free  from  sin;  questions  of  caruistry  are  endless,  bottom- 
less and  at  the  last  unsolvable,  the  question  of  duty  is 
solvable  by  the  judgment  which,  quickened  by  love,  is 
unerring.  The  question  of  duty  is  simple  and  strictly  this, 
and  nothing  more;  and  is  what  I  ought  to  do  in  this  mat- 
ter in  this  place,  at  this  time.  The  moment  we  begin 
to  lay  down  abstract  principles  or  rules,  difficulties  com- 
mence.     Besides   God   likes  positive   characters. 

Verse  1  66.  "I  hope  for  Thy  salvation.  Oh,  Jehovah, 
and  Thy  commandments  I  do."  The  past  of  the  verb  is 
used  in  both  clauses,  but  it  is  a  past  that  does  not  exclude 
the  present  or  the  future.  Omitting  the  consideration  of  the 
special  force  of  the  tenses,  let  us  look  at  the  correllation  of  the 
clauses.  It  is  sufficient  to  remark  that  the  psalmist  is  not 
making  a  prosaic  narrative  or  setting  forth  his  merits,  though 
in  the  verse  he  may  take  a  self-conscious  view  of  the 
grounds  of  his  peace.  As  to  the  clauses  we  have  in  them 
the  two  extremes  of  life,  the  meditative  and  the  practical. 
One  perfects  the  other;  true  hope  always  manifests  itself  in 
activity.  Hope  that  palzies  exertion  is  a  sham;  neither  is  there 
any  interest  taken  in  what  is  expected.  The  psalmist  as- 
serts both  hope  and  action  with  regard  to  himself,  and  the 


378  ^electeD  Psalms  anD  sponogtap&s 

motive  might  be  to  lay  down  a  model,  using  his  own  ex- 
perience as  a  means  of  instructing  others.  Yet  the  address 
to  Jehovah  appears  to  exclude  this.  The  soul  of  the  psalm- 
ist seems  to  be  alone  with  God.  This  militates  against  the 
idea  of  his  having  others  in  his  mind.  Unto  Jehovah,  he 
may  say,  "I  hope  and  do,  what  lack  I  yet?"  Or  something 
either  past  or  future  is  excluded  from  the  meaning  of  this 
tense,  this  may  be  a  resolve  in  the  form  of  a  mere  statement 
of  fact.  "I  hope  in  Thy  salvation,  and  Thy  command- 
ments I  do,"  that  is  my  fixed  state.  We  have  often  found 
this  the  force  of  like  statements  in  this  psalm,  and  ordinary 
speech  furnishes  many  examples  of  the  same  sort.  For  a 
company  of  soldiers  in  a  battle  to  say,  "we  are  going  right 
on,"  would  be  to  express  their  determination  to  fight  as 
strongly  as  words  well  could.  This  may  be  regarded  as  a 
private  transaction  of  the  psalmist  with  God  recorded  for 
our  benefit,  as  it  is  indeed  a  noun  of  conduct.  There  is 
a  great  propriety  in  the  use  of  the  word  "command- 
ments." It  is  the  law  as  guiding  toward  that  salvation 
which  is  offered  to  us.  The  activity  of  the  servant  of  God 
in  running  along  the  path  marked  out  by  the  commandments 
and  leading  to  everlasting  salvation,  is  but  an  expression  of 
his  hope.  This  "do"  answers  to  "hope,"  and  "command- 
ments" to  "salvation."  The  beginning  of  salvation  is  to 
have  the  commandments.  A  clue  found  is  deliverance  be- 
gun. Hope  together  with  activity,  hope  expressed  by  ac- 
tivity, activity  lighted  up  by  hope.  That  sums  up  the 
Christian's  work  in  the  world. 

Verse  1  67.  "My  soul  observes  Thy  testimonies  and 
I  love  them  exceedingly." 

The  peculiarity  about  the  first  clauses  that  it  is  not  said 
"I  observe,"  but  "my  soul  observes."  This  self-conscious 
expression  has  great  force.  I  might  observe  God's  testi- 
monies by  virtue  of  a  resolve.  The  Pharisees  observed 
God's  testimonies  in  this  way,  it  was  without  any  hearti- 
ness,   though   with   the   extremity   of   resolve.       When   the 


Iftetn  jFreDericfe  JLa  Iftue  fcing     370 

psalmist  says  "my  soul  observes"  he  brings  into  view  a  force 
beneath  the  conscious  volition — the  feelings,  that  will  propel 
a  man  forward,  which  act  with  lightning  rapidity,  and  which 
direct  with  the  most  acute  discrimintion.  A  man  may  do 
a  great  deal  by  effort,  but  when  the  feelings  become  en- 
listed, then  alone  can  the  whole  man  be  said  to  act.  What 
are  those  feelings?  First,  fear  of  God.  Second,  response 
of  the  moral  nature  to  the  command.  To  disobey  is  going 
against  the  soul  itself.  How  easy  and  to-be-depended-on  is 
the  action  of  a  man  when  his  soul  is  engaged,  when  it  be- 
comes unnatural  for  him  to  disobey.  And  this  ought  to  be 
the  aim  of  every  servant  of  God,  to  educate  himself  towards 
this.  And  to  ask  of  God  whatever  change  in  him  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  needed  to  make  it  unnatural  for  him  to  disobey. 
Advance  in  the  religious  life  is  not  merely  the  educating  and 
disciplining  the  volition  Volition  is  not  service.  Volition 
may  be  heartless.  It  is  when  the  will  is  the  man  that  the  sub- 
mission of  the  will  is  grateful  to  our  Heavenly  Father.  In 
the  second  clause  love  is  used  in  the  sense  of  "lie,"  and  the 
correllation  with  the  first  clause  is  complete.  "My  soul  ob- 
serves," i.  e.,  "my  inclinations  tend  toward  the  observance 
of  the  commandment?  "I  love,"  the  commandment.  I 
incline  to  obey  them.  Of  love  proper,  terminating  on  a  person 
there  is  little  in  this  psalm.  Still  in  a  latent  way  here,  as  in 
v.  163,  liking  of  the  commandment  may  be  a  manifestation 
of  love  for  the  Giver. 

Verse  1  68.  "I  observe  Thy  precepts  and  testimonies 
because  all  my  ways  are  before  Thee."  The  first  clause  is 
remarkable  as  being  the  only  clause  containing  in  it  two  of 
the  terms  used  to  designate  the  law  in  this  Psalm,  namely 
"precepts" — work  assigned,  and  testimonies — the  moral  law. 
This  verse  presents  a  detail  of  the  emotional  experience 
summed  up  in  the  preceding  verse  in  the  expression  "my 
soul."  The  fear  of  God  explained  as  one  element  of  that 
mental  attitude  is  here  stated  alone.  And  well  will  it  be  for 
us  if  we,  amid  our  various  mental  exercises  fail  not  to  exer- 


380  Selected  psalms  and  ^onogtap^0 

cise  fear  towards  God  as  a  separate  and  distinct  feeling, and  a 
means  to  be  used  to  keep  us  in  the  right  way.  We  must 
not  rely  upon  a  general  cultivation  of,  or  depend  on,  the 
general  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  seek  for  that  alone. 
Our  faith  ought  to  be  exercised  on  single  and  separate  ob- 
jects or  it  will  become  too  vague  in  character  to  be  effective. 
And  surely  a  place  is  to  be  found  for  that  exercise  of  faith, 
that  realizes  the  Invisible  One  before  whom  all  things  are 
naked  and  open.  If  we  do  not  we  will  lose  a  vivid  stimulus 
to  right  action  and  a  means  of  direct  appropriation  of  a  spec- 
ial grace.  Also,  we  will  be  in  danger  of  relying  upon  the 
impulses  of  our  own  natural  hearts,  taking  unwarrantably  for 
granted  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  clean,  enduring  forever."  Not  that  a  Christian  man 
must  walk  habitually  through  fear  of  the  Lord.  The  psalm- 
ist does  not  here  mean  to  say  that  this  sums  up  all  the  mo- 
tives that  he  has  for  the  observance  of  God's  precepts  and  tes- 
timonies. When  he  says,  v.  167,  "my  soul  observes,"  he 
indicates  many  others.  The  verses  of  this  psalm  may  be  con- 
sidered as  the  great  impulse  to  service  analyzed  into  its  ele- 
ments for  the  use  of  God's  people.  "All  my  ways"  all  that 
pertains  to  my  activity  is  before  Thy  sight,  before  Thy  judg- 
ment and  before  Thy  power. 

TAU. 

Verse  169.  "Let  my  cry  come  near  before  Thee, 
Jehovah;  according  to  Thy  word  make  me  understand." 

The  figure  of  a  king  is  indicated  here ;  and  as  it  is  a  sign 
of  attention  and  favor  to  invite  a  petitioner  to  come  near,  so 
the  request  is  that  his  "cry"  may  be  permitted  to  come  "near 
before"  Jehovah,  since  the  monarch's  ear,  once  gained,  all 
else  will  follow.  It  is  remarkable  how  exclusively,  in  this 
Psalm,  the  appeal  is  made  to  God  by  His  covenant  name, 
Jehovah.  There  is  a  very  great  and  importunate  petition, 
and  claim  in  the  very  use  of  the  word.  According  to  the 
correlation  the  cry  in  the  first  clause  interpreted  by  the  pe- 


i&eto*  jFreDerick  La  Kue  I&ittg     381 

tition  in  the  second,  would  have  cleared  up  certain  mysteries 
of  God's  providence.  No  more  speculative  interest  how- 
ever is  sought  here  to  be  gratified,  the  word  "cry"  is  too 
strong  for  that.  The  psalmist  is  evidently  in  difficulty  if 
not  in  danger.  And  these  troubles  are  mysterious  to  him; 
he  cannot  see  why  they  have  come  upon  him.  Pefhaps 
there  was  an  element  of  novelty,  as  well  as  terror — the  open- 
ing before  him  of  a  new  and  unexpected  sphere  of  appre- 
hension. So  was  it  with  our  Lord  in  the  stress  of  His  trial. 
We  are  told  by  Mark  that  at  the  entering  upon 
the  agony  of  the  garden  he  was  "greatly  amazed,"  and,  on 
the  cross,  he  asked  "Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?"  And 
this  is  often  the  hardest  part  of  a  trial,  that  it  attacks  the 
peace.  Hard  as  it  is  in  itself,  the  trouble  may  be  borne  if 
we  can  see  its  purpose  and  that  it  is  kind  and  loving.  This 
seems  to  be  what  principally  presses  upon  him;  his 
soul  is  dark — his  peace  is  disturbed — he  does  not  under- 
stand. His  petition  is  that  he  may  understand  "according 
to  Tlhy  word,"  i.  e.,  First,  In  fulfillment  of  Thy  promise 
grant  me  understanding;  for,  as  we  have  often  seen,  God 
fulfills  His  promise  not  only  at  the  last,  but  all  along,  doing 
whatever  is  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  promise. 
The  apostle  argues  a  fortiori  from  the  great  gift  of  the  Son  of 
God  to  the  lesser  things,  not  logically,  but  spiritually  implied. 
And  so,  we  may  argue,  that  the  promise  that  was  meant 
to  cheer  and  make  bright  at  the  last,  was  also  meant  to  cheer 
and  make  clear  to  our  minds  God's  good-will  to  us  through- 
out our  pilgrimage.  We  can  claim  whatever  is  needed  to 
make  us  understand  and  can  ask  that  the  promise  may,  of 
itself,  minister  understanding  to  us. 

Second.  Enable  me  to  see  that  the  promise  accords  with 
our  present  trials. 

Third.  This  is  a  petition  for  hastening  the  fulfillment 
of  die  promise.  After  all,  we  cannot  understand  clearly 
until  salvation  is  revealed.     Gleams   of  understanding  we 


382  ©elected  Psalms  and  Qionograpjjs 

can  have  but  full  satisfaction  we  can  never  hope  for  until 
faith  is  changed  to  clear  vision. 

Verse  170.  "Let  my  supplication  come  before  Thee; 
according  to  Thy  promise  deliver  me."  The  form  of  the 
first  clause  is  such  that  one  cannot  help  regarding  this  verse 
as  a  correllative  of  the  preceding.  The  first  noun,  accord- 
ing to  its  etymology,  denotes  a  prayer  for  grace  or  favor, 
— Alexander.  This  makes  die  clause  answer  to  the  first 
clause  of  the  preceding  verse,  which  is  not  so  much  a  peti- 
tion to  be  delivered  from  trouble  as  from  a  mind  troubled 
from  a  loss  of  clear  sense  of  God's  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness and  love,  from  heavy  trials  that  beset  it.  "Let  this, 
my  earnest  desire  for  a  sense  of  Thy  grace  and  favor,  come 
before  Thee.  It  is  curious  to  notice  the  difference  between 
this  and  the  preceding  verse.  The  vague  word  "cry"  is 
replaced  by  the  more  definite  "supplication."  At  the  same 
time  that  "cry"  is  more  vague  it  is  more  intense — expresses 
stronger  emotion.  And  so  we  have  in  the  former,  "come 
near  before"and  in  the  latter,  only  "come  before."  The 
omission  of  the  appeal,  "Oh  Jehovah,"  is  significant,  also, 
and  suitable  to  the  lowered  intensity  of  feeling  of  v.  1  70, 
since  the  very  fact  that  Jehovah  is  the  covenant  God  is  what 
makes  it  some  times  seem  mysterious.  The  petition  in  the 
second  clause  of  v.  1 69  subordinately  includes  a  prayer  for 
deliverance  from  trials,  but  principally  seeks  for  renewed 
union  with  God  through  clearer  light  upon  His  ways  with 
His  people.  In  this  verse  the  petition  is  directly  to  be  deliv- 
ered from  trouble.  And  yet  the  phrase  used  suggests  some- 
thing more  than  external  trouble.  "Set  me  free,"  disen- 
tangle me,"  indicates  perplexity,  and  this  correlates  it  slight- 
ly with  the  preceding  verse.  "Deliver  me  from  the  trouble 
of  perplexity,"  "disimplicate  me,"  "help  me  to  the  feelings 
I  ought  to  entertain;  enable  me  to  see  what  is  to  be  done 
and  how  it  is  to  be  done." 

Verse  171.  "My  lips  shall  pour  forth  praise;  for 
Thou  shalt  teach  me  Thy  statutes."     Here  we  have  in 


Eetn  jFre&etick  La  Etue  &ing     383 

the  promise  of  future  praise  an  indication  that  he  is  not  yet 
ready  to  praise — that  God's  glory  is  to  a  certain  degree, 
darkened.  The  "pour  forth"  marks  the  depth  of  the  dark- 
ness by  the  intensity  of  its  promise.  For  this  is  a  promise — 
a  resolve,  and  yet  it  is  more.  It  is  the  statement  of  what 
will  be  the  inevitable  result  of  the  granting  of  his  peti- 
tion. "  My  difficulties  will  all  be  cleared  away.  I  shall 
understand.  I  shall  be  relieved  of  my  perplexity."  What 
that  perplexity  is  may,  perhaps  be  understood  from  the 
last  clause  of  the  verse.  He  wishes  to  have  God's  orders 
— the  expression  of  His  arbitrary  will.  This  is  stated, 
not  in  the  form  of  petition,  but  in  that  of  confident  ex- 
pectation— the  true  petition  of  faith.  The  mere  know- 
ledge of  God's  arbitrary  will,  cannot,  of  course,  reveal  to  the 
mind  the  wisdom  and  love  of  which  these  statutes  are  the 
expression.  But  such  a  knowledge  would  be  calculated 
to  call  forth  praise  on  account  of  the  clearing  up  of  one's 
path.  One  of  the  most  mysterious  of  God's  dealings 
with  His  servants  is  that  He  sometimes  leaves  them  without 
orders.  We  often  can  see  the  reason  of  this.  Such  a  de- 
privation demands  the  exercise  of,  and  develops  intuitional 
judgments  as  to  what  is  right  and  best.  It  is  a  great  re- 
lief, when  one  has  been  left  to  judge  for  one's  self  and  has 
been  puzzled  and  wearied  beyond  endurance,  to  be  able 
to  lean  against  the  arbitrary  will  of  God.  There  is  a  de- 
light in  knowing  just  what  to  do  at  every  moment.  We 
may  arrive  at  the  knowledge  by  a  clear  light  being  thrown 
upon  some  preceptive  passage  of  Scripture  previously  mis- 
understood or  by  the  brushing  away  of  some  temptation  that 
obstructed  the  clear  view  of  our  duty.  Or  God  may  give 
us  a  statute,  by  hedging  up  our  path,  to  give  us  ease  and 
even  delight  though  it  may  break  up  our  plans  of  life  and 
involve  loss.  The  word  "teach"  may  mean,  not  simply 
state,  but  explain.  A  statute  it  would  seem  has  need  often 
to  be  more  than  a  mere  arbitrary  decree  to  enable  us  to 
differentiate  it.     God  can  teach  us  by  letting  us  a  little  into 


384  ^electeD  psalms  anO  0ionogtapf)0 

the  heart  of  an  order,  and  so  to  get  at  its  principle,  or  by 
providences  that  may  lead  us  to  the  application  of  it  into 
all  details.  And  in  this  way  God  may  evoke  the  pouring 
forth  of  praise  from  us  by  showing  us  what  wisdom  and  love 
were  hidden  in  this  arbitrary  will.  After  a  long  struggle 
with  disease  at  a  missionary  station  in  India,  after  all  the  re- 
sources of  science  had  been  used  and  many  prayers,  in  faith, 
certain  missionaries  were  at  last  forced  to  abandon  their  po- 
sition and  choose  another  place  for  a  central  station.  They 
immediately  found  the  advantages  of  the  new  location  were 
so  great  that  they  counted  it  well  worth  the  enduring  those 
trials  that  compelled  them  to  recognize  God's  arbitrary  will 
and  compelled  them  to  obey. 

Verse  1  72.  "Let  my  tongue  answer  Thy  saying — 
that  all   Thy  commandments  are  right." 

The  word  "saying"  throughout  the  psalm  means  the 
promise.  The  proper  response  would  seem  to  be  thankful- 
ness, joy.  It  should  also  be  obedience  stimulated  by  thank- 
fulness and  hope — eager  actively  in  seeking  the  kingdom 
of  Heaven  offered  to  the  servant,  by  a  path  leading  through 
many  duties;  for  it  is  a  proper  effect  of  the  promise  to  guide; 
and  it  may  even  be  said  to  enact  a  law  for  the  recipient. 
Thus,  by  the  impulse  of  the  promise  they  "rive  the  dark  by 
private  ray."  But  the  steps  we  ought  to  take  are  some- 
times prescribed  to  us.  These  prescriptions  seem  some- 
times unwarrantable  and  even  contradictory  to  the  prom- 
ise. There  was  a  full  and  free  promise  made  to  Abraham 
and  his  seed,  but  long  after  the  giving  of  the  promise, 
a  condition  of  holiness  was  annexed  to  it.  Now  a  man, 
without  moral  sense,  would  pronounce  the  commandments 
wrong.  A  man  of  keen  moral  sense  would  be  inclined  to 
count  the  commandments  right  and  to  give  up  the  promise. 
This  is  often  done,  especially  when  the  mind  is  clouded 
with  a  sense  of  transgression.  It  is  a  far  harder  and  indeed 
wondrous  thing  for  a  man  not  only  to  declare  the  command- 
ments right,   but  consistent  with  the  promise,   and  that  in 


Iftetn  jFreDerick  La  Hue  Mm      385 

answer — who  to  the  promise,  as  an  expression  of  the  feelings 
that  the  promise  awakens.  It  is  as  if  he  saw  the  promise  in 
the  commandments.  And,  indeed  did  not  the  law  of  Moses 
requiring  holiness  of  God's  people  really  add  a  further 
grace  to  the  promise  of  Abraham.  Did  it  not  make  the 
promise  pregnant  with  a  higher  promise?  They  who  see 
furtherest  and  best  see  that  the  law  and  the  promise  are  one. 
Cromwell  on  his  death  bed  comforted  himself  with  the 
thought  that  the  covenant  of  works  and  the  covenant  of  prom- 
ise are  one  in  Christ.  God's  "saying"  is  essentially  one  with 
the  promise,  and  yet,  by  itself,  it  seems  often  hard  to  bear. 
In  Psalm  1 05 : 1 9  the  two  words  used  in  this  psalm  for 
"promise."  "Word"  and  "saying"  are  used  in  the  same 
verse  and  discriminatingly.  "Until  his  word  came,  the  say- 
ing of  the  Lord  tried  him."  The  "word  of  God  to  Joseph 
held  forth  the  promise  of  great  advancement,  and  yet  from 
the  time  of  the  giving  of  the  promise,  the  providential  ap- 
pointments of  God  (represented  by  the  word,  "saying") 
tried  him.  He  was  hated  by  his  brethern,  cast  into  a  pit,  sold 
into  Egypt,  and  left  to  languish  in  prison.  Yet  all  these 
events  so  contrary  in  appearance  to  the  promise,  were  in 
reality  steps  to  its  fulfillment.  The  word  that  promised, 
and  the  word  that  imposed  these  trials  were  really  one.  And 
if  Joseph  realized  this  it  must  have  given  him  good  cheer 
even  in  a  dungeon.  And  we  Christians,  if  we  only  are  able 
to  see  that  providential  dispensations  of  God  are  not  con- 
tray  to  his  promise,  will  have  peace  no  matter  how  thorny 
a  path  His  commandments  call  upon  us  to  tread.  The 
"saying"  will  always  be  to  us  as  the  "promise."  The 
optative  is  used  in  this  verse:  "Would  that  my  tongue 
might."  The  psalmist  has  not  attained  unto  the  power,  but 
only  to  the  desire  of  it,  which  is  a  great  attainment. 
Christians  nowadays  can  easily  see  the  consistency  of  the 
commandments  with  the  promise,  since  both  can  be  fulfilled. 
Even  sinners  can  enter  into  the  promise  if  they  will  accept  of 
it.     But  how  could  the  Old  Testament  saints  respond  to 


386  Selected  psalms  anO  e@onogtapb$ 

the  promise  in  declaring  the  commandments  right.  It  may 
be  that  this  optative  describes  the  position  of  the  Old  Test- 
ament saints.  Letting  the  promise  over  against  the  com- 
mandments, accepting  both,  and  believing  both  to  be  consist- 
ent, and  catching  gleams  of  that  consistence  in  the  terrors 
and  the  splendors  of  the  law  (Thorah) — cult,  they  yet 
longed  for  more,  they  desired  to  accept  the  commands  in  the 
same  spirit  that  they  accepted  the  promise,  realizing  that  they 
were  both  a  source  of  joy  and  expectation.  Faith  prompted 
the  longing  and  faith,  perhaps,  nay  doubtless,  bridged  over 
the  gap,  for  in  God  are  all  solutions.  If  this  psalm  was 
written  by  the  young  Solomon  we  can  easily  see  the  dif- 
ficulty of  reconciling  His  promise  of  a  throne,  with  the  path 
which  God  laid  down  by  this  way  marks  for  him  to  tread 
which  seemed  to  lead  away  from  it. 

Verse  1  73.  "Let  Thy  hand  be  near  for  my  help, 
for  Thy  precepts  I  choose." 

Perhaps  it  is  not  straining  the  meaning  to  establish  a 
connection  between  this  verse  and  the  preceding  verses  of  the 
stanza.  In  verse  1  73  the  bewilderment  of  verse  1 69,  the 
perplexity  of  verse  1  70,  the  doubt  as  to  what  is  God's 
will  of  verse  171,  and  the  doubt  as  to  the  consistency  be- 
tween that  will  and  the  promise  of  verse  1  72  all  reappearing 
in  a  burden  of  mysterious  perplexity,  doubtful  and  trying 
work  that  is  laid  upon  him,  which  yet  he  chooses  because 
God  assigns  it.  There  is  something  more  in  choosing  than 
mere  acceptance — acquiescence.  Many  accept  as  a  bur- 
den what  they  would  find  bliss  in  choosing  if  they  only 
loved  God  and  felt  confident  in  His  good  will.  Here  the 
psalmist  seems  to  rise  at  least  towards  the  height  of  his  pe- 
tition of  the  preceding  verse.  When  we  heartily  accept  the 
life's  lot  and  work  that  God  has  assigned  us,  we  are  in  a 
fair  way  to  choose  them  with  joy,  to  take  them  as  we  take 
the  promise,  and  indeed  as  the  promise.  At  any  rate  the 
psalmist  accepts  the  commandments  that  guide  him  to  his 
work,  which  He  chooses  to  be  his.     And  notice  how  neatly 


I&e*h  jFte&etick  JLa  Eue  ming      387 

the  verb  of  the  first  clause  is  suited  to  the  title  precepts  in  the 
second  clause.  "Precepts"  is  work  assigned,  and  the  peti- 
tion is  for  assistance.  "I  choose  ex  animo  the  work  assign- 
ed, help  me  do  it."  Surely  here  is  something  to  base  a 
petition  upon.  If  we  behave  slavishly,  doing  God's  will  of 
constraint  we  can  have  less  of  a  spirit  of  supplication  for  help. 
The  farther  we  are  from  choosing,  the  farther  we  are  draw- 
ing God.  And  there  is  something  contradictory  in  our  draw- 
ing near  to  God  for  help  from  his  hand  when  we  draw 
away  from  His  hand  that  assigns  our  burdens.  But  in 
drawing  near  to  the  hand  that  assigns  our  burdens,  we  draw 
near  to  the  hand  that  helps. 

N.  B.  May  we  not  gather  something  from  the  form 
of  the  clause?  Is  there  not  something  of  the  claim  about 
it?  Is  there  not  an  implication  that  God's  hand  ought  to  be 
for  his  help,  since  he  chooses  what  that  hand  assigns?  Is 
there  not,  also,  something  of  general  trust  rather  than  specific 
request?  He  does  not  desire  that  God  should  give  him 
some  particular  sort  of  help  (as  to  way  or  time,)  but  relies 
simply  on  God's  hands — this  whole  hand,  and  asks  what- 
ever that  hand  can  do. 

Verse  1  74.  "  I  long  for  Thy  salvation,  O  Jehovah, 
and  Thy  law  (is)  my  delight." 

If  we  give  the  title  "law"  its  proper  meaning — the  cult 
— the  Mosaic  worship,  then  the  clauses  can  be  easily  brought 
into  correlation.  The  law  is  especially  the  promise  and 
partial  realization  of  salvation.  It  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tion even  in  its  splendid  and  reassuring  exhibitions,  and  its 
acts  of  satisfaction  and  went  some  way  toward  bringing 
about  a  blessed  social  state.  Now  the  moment  we  interpret 
these  clauses  in  the  light  of  this  meaning  of  the  title  law,  the 
clauses  cease  to  be  independent  propositions,  one  expressing 
desire  for  salvation  and  the  other  delight  in  doing  God's  will. 
They  become  closely  related.  The  first  is  no  more  desire  to 
be  delivered  from  present  difficulties  or  generally  from  the 


388  Selected  psalms  anD  QOonogtap&s 

troubles  of  this  world.  It  is  Thy  salvation  that  he  longs  for, 
that  happy  state  of  things  national,  social  and  personal  that 
God  had  encouraged,  and  made  deeper  and  broader, 
and  in  the  law,  too,  he  finds  the  beginning  of  satisfaction. 
Hie  longing  to  be  delivered  from  present  and  prospective 
dangers  should  not  be  excluded — the  aching  of  the  heart  at 
the  prosperity  of  the  wicked.  In  this  the  law  is  a  soother 
and  encourager  of  the  heart  of  God's  servant,  for  there  are 
parts  that  reveal  and  promise  God's  judgment  on  the  ene- 
mies of  his  people.  They  "shall  be  as  the  fat  of  lambs." 
And  this  he  understands  when  he  goes  into  the  house  of 
God  (see  psalm  73,  3,  16,  17,  18,)  and  is  therefore 
enabled  to  be  patient  and  wait  in  comfort.  Here,  then, 
is  a  spiritual  attitude  that  we  ought  to  try  to  put  on  as  we 
repeat  these  words.  Longing  so  intense  and  exacting  that 
nothing  can  satisfy  it  but  that  which  is  perfect  and  yet  pres- 
ent delight  in  what  God,  at  present,  supplies.  Divine 
discontent  and  divine  content  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
Enjoying  the  inn  where  we  lodge  for  the  night,  thankful  for 
the  comfort  it  affords,  gaining  from  it  some  new  conception 
of  our  blessed  and  permanent  home,  and  yet  longing  to 
press  forward  in  our  pilgrimage  "willing  to  be  happy"  as 
I  heard  it  said  of  one,  who  though  tried,  still  made  the 
most  of  little  joys.  Ever  content,  no  matter  what  ex- 
ternal things  may  be.  And  thus  there  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
Christian's  longing  always  a  satisfaction.  He  may  be  un- 
troubled in  the  midst  of  trouble  while  he  makes  the  law 
his  delight  (Psalm  46:1,  2  and  4.)  waiting  and  longing 
they  shall  yet  (Psalm  36:8)  be  abundantly  satisfied  with 
the  fatness  of  Thy  house,  and  may  well  say  with  David 
in  what  is  manifestly  a  waiting  longing.  (Psalm  65 :4) 
"Blessed  is  the  man  whom  thou  choosest  and  causest  to 
approach  unto  Thee,  that  he  may  dwell  in  Thy  courts;  we 
shall  be  satisfied  with  the  goodness  of  Thy  house,  even  of 
Thy  holy  temple." 


i&etn  JFreDetick  La  i&ue  Mm    389 

Verse  175.  "Let  my  soul  live  and  praise  Thee; 
and  let  Thy  judgments  help  me." 

"Let  my  soul  live"  is  evidently  a  petition  of  the  psalm- 
ist for  his  endangered  life,  a  petition  often  occuring  in  this 
psalm.  But  not  merely  life  is  petitioned  for,  but  fullness  of 
life,  moral  and  emotional,  a  life  full  of  peace  and  joy,  and 
the  active  exercise  of  its  highest  powers.  The  combination 
occurs  many  times  in  the  scriptures.  When  Abraham  says 
to  Sarah  "My  soul  shall  live  because  of  tru.e,"  he  means 
not  merely  that  his  life  will  be  saved  but  that  he  will  be 
secure  and  cheered  in  the  confidence  of  it.  So  with  Lot 
petitioning  for  Zoar,  he  asks  that  his  life  may  be  preserved 
by  a  favor  that  will  give  immediate  care  and  comfort  to  him. 
In  Jeremiah  38:17  and  20  the  same  expression  is  used,  evi- 
dently meaning  Zedekiah's  life  would  be  saved  on  condition 
that  he  should  go  out  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  yet  it 
must  mean  more  than  that,  for  he  had  been  promised  life  in 
any  case  (Jer.  34:3.)  And  so  it  turned  out  that  not  hav- 
ing gone  out  to  the  king  of  Babylon,  he  nevertheless  lived; 
but  as  a  blinded  prisoner  bereft  of  all  the  glorious  fullness  of 
life.  So,  then,  this  clause  means  "let  me  live  in  the  happy 
use  of  all  the  multiform  powers  of  my  soul  and  praise 
Thee.  That  last  is  one  of  the  very  highest  and  happiest 
exercises  of  the  soul.  It  is  the  greatest  of  the  delights  of 
life  that  he  petitions  for.  And  in  this  sense  we  must  un- 
derstand Isaiah  38:18,  "For  the  grave  cannot  praise  Thee, 
death  cannot  celebrate  Thee;  they  that  go  down  to  the  pit 
cannot  hope  for  Thy  truth.  The  living,  he  shall 
praise  Thee  as  I  do  this  day."  Hezekiah  does  not  speak 
of  praise  as  something  done  for  God,  but  as  the  acme  of 
happy  living,  and  so  it  is,  and  eternal  praise  implies  the 
eternal  reception  of  what  fills  the  heart  with  ever-new 
thankfulness  and  the  unfolding  of  scenes  of  ever-deepening 
grandeur;  the  grateful  praise  and  adoring  response  to  which 
is  the  highest  form  of  life.     Well  says  the  poet  Addison: — 


390  ^electeu  psalms  ano  a&onogtap&s 

"To  all  eternity,  to  Thee, 
A  joyful  song  I'll  raise, 
For  Oh!  Eternity's  too  short 
To  utter  all  Thy  praise." 

The  latter  clause  limits  the  source  of  praise  to  ex- 
tending help  in  righteousness.  The  psalmist  asks  that  God 
in  the  exercise  of  His  just  decisions  shall  deliver  him.  It  is 
the  prayer  of  one  whose  troubles  do  not  arise  from  his 
own  fault,  but  perhaps  from  his  good  qualities  and  good 
actions.  It  may  be  God  who  is  struck  at  in  him.  But 
what  if  it  is  otherwise?  What  if  the  injuries  inflicted  on  him 
by  others  are  simply  the  wages  of  his  own  ill  doing?  What 
if  he  feels  that  he  deserves  all  he  suffers?  Can  he  still  ask 
"Let  Thy  judgments  help  me.  There  was  an  answer  to 
this  even  in  the  time  of  the  Old  Economy,  but  we  have  a 
clearer  one  under  our  dispensation.  God's  judgments  can 
help  even  a  sinner.  In  Christ  we  can  appeal  to  God's 
justice  for  deliverance  from  sin's  guilt.  That  is  certainly 
implied  in  Psalm  5 1 .  "Deliver  me  from  my  blood  guilti- 
ness, O  God,  Thou  God  of  my  salvation,  and  my  tongue 
shall  sing  aloud,"  not  of  Thy  mercy,  but  "of  Thy  right- 
eousness." But  in  the  cross  of  Christ  it  was  first  shown 
how  such  a  thing  could  be  possible.  The  Christian  may  use 
these  words  in  the  highest  evangelical  sense  that  his  exper- 
ience dictates,  and  not  beyond  the  meaning  with  which 
these  words  were  uttered  through  the  Holy  Spirit  from  the 
soul  if  not  from  the  intellect  of  the  psalmist.  The  use  of 
the  word  "soul"  suggests  that  the  praise  which  he  desires 
to  offer  is  not  merely  the  sacrifice  of  his  lips,  but  the  devo- 
tion of  his  life,  and  thus  understood  it  becomes  a  model 
of  all  prayers  for  deliverance.  They  should  be  in  their 
essence  renewed  acts  of  self-dedication.  Faith  will  be 
helped  to  greater  flights  by  such  a  petition  as  this. 

Verse  1  76.  "I  wander  like  a  lost  sheep — seek  Thy 
servant — for  Thy  commandments  I  do  not  forget." 


Eeth  ^Frederick  JLa  Eue  iftmg     39t 

We  have  here  another  instance  of  the  careful  use  of 
terms  of  which  we  have  so  many  examples  in  this  psalm. 
They  are  especially  valuable  as  helping  to  prove  the  accur- 
acy of  the  meaning  assigned  to  the  various  titles  of  the  law. 
We  have  the  servant  of  God  in  the  first  clause  having  lost  his 
way  and  we  see  him  in  the  latter  relying  on  the  command- 
ments, the  law  as  guiding,  the  way  mark  God  has  granted 
to  keep  us  in  the  right  path.  The  wandering  meant  here  is 
not  the  active  going  astray — the  sinning — but  rather  is  the 
result  of  sin.  Notice  this  is  the  wandering  of  a  sheep. 
That  implies  sin,  for  a  sheep  need  not  go  astray  if  he  only 
will  attend  to  the  shepherd.  But  once  having  gone  astray, 
he  must  wander,  that  is,  search  aimlessly  and  helplessly  for 
what  he  has  not — the  way  out  of  the  condition  he  is  in. 
He  cannot  make  his  home  away  from  the  fold,  as  the  wolves 
and  other  wild  beasts  can.  He  knows  something  better, 
and  he  will  to  the  end  wander  in  another  fashion  than  theirs. 
He  will  still  helplessly  and  ineffectually  but  with  true  desire 
seek  to  get  back  to  the  fold.  His  erring  course,  will,  if  a 
course  make  it  difficult  to  get  back  at  once  to  the  fold. 
There  has  been  a  blinding  and  hardening  process  at  work 
upon  him.  He  is  bewildered,  and  that  state  of  puzzled 
guilt  is  one  of  the  most  painful  for  anyone  to  get  into.  It 
seems  almost  impossible  for  him  to  recognize  any  act  of 
his  as  an  undoubted  sin,  much  more  to  confess  and  repent 
of  it.  Well  for  such  an  one  when  he  sees  that  there  is  no 
deliverance  from  the  coil  he  is  in  but  by  the  power  of  God. 
"Seek  Thy  servant;"  it  takes  faith  to  say  that,  and  yet, 
God  is  ready  to  seek,  glad  to  hear  the  petition  forced  from 
the  lips  of  this  erring  child.  "Thy  servant,"  this  expression 
shows  that  though  he  has  lost  much  he  has  much  remaining, 
it  looks  like  the  strain  upon  the  clue  that  is  to  conduct  him 
to  the  lost  fold.  The  last  clause,  "for  Thy  commandments 
I  do  not  forget,"  is  not  adduced  as  an  evidence  of  desert, 
but  rather  as  an  evidence  that  he  looks  for  God's  help,  and 
begins  to  hope  for  it.     An  erring  child  of  God  is  at  first 


392  Selected  Psalms  anD  ^onograpbs 

tempted  to  rely  on  his  own  efforts  to  find  the  way  back. 
Then,  perhaps,  despairingly,  call  on  God.  But  no  true  call 
on  God  for  Him  to  do  for  us  what  He  has  not  done  can 
be  made,  if  we  do  not  take  advantage  of  all  the  help  He  has 
given  us.  If  we  desire  the  clearer  revelation,  we  will  prize 
and  use  whatever  revelation  He  has  already  made.  If  we 
do  desire  Him  to  seek  us  and  come  to  us,  we  will  follow 
the  indications  He  has  given  in  His  commandments.  Per- 
haps there  is  a  coincidence  here.  The  turning  helplessly 
to  the  Lord  stimulates  to  a  new  attention  to  His  command- 
ments. And  so,  the  words  "for  Thy  commandments  I  do 
not  forget,"  is  merely  another  way  of  saying  mat  he  turns 
to  the  Lord.  He  has  at  last  caught  sight  of  the  forgotten 
way  marks,  and  springs  forward  in  the  path,  crying  to  the 
Lord,  for  he  realizes  at  last,  that  he  must  have  something 
more  even  than  God's  way  marks  to  help  him  through  the 
wilderness.  Here,  then,  we  have  the  servant  of  God,  a 
wanderer  through  his  sins,  despairing  of  being  able  to  get 
back  even  when  aided  by  the  law,  comes  to  feel  that  God's 
love  goes  out  towards  him,  and  cries  "seek  Thy  servant,  who 
striving  strives  not,  who  seeking  seeks  not,  who  coming 
comes  not"  and  who  helplessly  cries  "come  to  me." 


Rem  ^Frederick  La  Eue  fting     393 

Soto  to  pecome  a  Gfrue 
CJjrtettan* 

Hetterg  to  a  Jlommal  Cfjrtettatt 

Reti*  jFtedericfe  £a  Eue  ding 


[These  Letters  are  printed  as  an  addition  to  the  "Selected  Psalms 
and  Monographs"  in  order  not  only  to  show  my  brother's  views  on  this 
vital  theme,  but  also  to  reveal  another  phase  of  his  literary  versatility. — 
A.  B.  K.] 

LETTER  I. 


Common  mistake — Must  act  upon  knowledge  possess- 
ed— not  wait  for  feelings — Claim  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour 
by  faith. 


Dear  Friend: — 

In  the  short  conversation  we  had  the  other 
day  about  conversion,  I  learned,  somewhat  to  my  surprise, 
that  you  were  not,  what  is  usually  called,  a  "professing 
Christian."  It  was  also  plain  that  you  felt  it  would  not  be 
your  duty,  and  Would  even  be  wrong,  for  you  to  join  your- 
self to  the  people  of  God,  and  at  the  Lord's  Supper  obey 
the  Saviour's  command,  "Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me," 
until  the  Holy  Spirit  should  work  a  thorough,  conscious,  and 
even  sudden  change,  in  your  moral  nature.  This  you  hoped 
would  take  place  some  time  or  another.  Till  then,  you 
considered  that  your  sole  duty  in  the  premises  was  to  place 
yourself  in  the  way  of  the  converting  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.      Part  of  this,  you  see,  I  infer,  but  I  think  I  cannot  be 


394  Selected  p$aims  anD  ©onograpfts 

mistaken.  I  am  familiar  with  this  state  of  mind.  Indeed 
it  was  my  own  when  I  was  young.  I  was  brought  up 
surrounded  by  religious  influences,  instructed  from  my  earl- 
iest youth  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  I  hoped,  some 
day,  to  become  a  Christian,  and  expected,  when  that  event 
took  place,  to  become  a  member  of  the  church,  from  whose 
privileges  I  was  meanwhile  debarred.  All  that  was  left  for 
me  to  do  was,  to  hear  sermons  and  attend  meetings,  in  order 
that,  through  them,  by  God's  grace,  I  might  be  changed. 
I  used,  in  fact,  these  means  of  grace,  just  as  one  goes  to  the 
fire  to  be  warmed. 

One  day,  I  was  made  aware  that  when  God  says 
"come,"  He  means  "come  now";  when  He  says  "do 
this,"  He  means  "do  it  now,"  that  the  "accepted 
time"  is  "today."  I  found  that  the  invitation,  "Come, 
for  all  things  are  ready,"  was  addressed  to  me,  just  as  I  was, 
that  there  was  nothing  to  wait  for;  that  it  was  disobedience 
to  wait  a  single  minute.  I  came  to  see  that  God  does  not 
merely  ask  that  we  should  be  willing  that  something  should 
happen  to  us;  that  we  should  put  ourselves  in  the  way  of  the 
Spirit's  influences,  just  as  one  goes  out  into  the  sunshine  to 
be  warmed;  but  demands  activity  of  the  soul  that  would 
possess  Him.  It  must  knock,  seek,  strive,  enter;  and  I,  at 
once,  without  any  conscious  change  in  my  spiritual  state, 
sought,  and  found  admission  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and 
that  too,  without  being  able  to  see  in  myself,  or  state  to 
others,  distinct  evidence  that  I  had  passed  from  death  to  life. 
It  was  a  good  day  when  I  did  so — I  have  never  regretted  it 
— I  acted  on  the  spirit  of  the  hymn: — 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 

But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 

And  that  Thou  bidst  me  come  to  Thee, 
Oh  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 

"Just  as  I  am,  and  waiting  not 
To  rid  my  soul  of  one  dark  blot, 

To  Thee,  whose  blood  can  cleanse  each  spot, 
Oh  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 


i&eto*  jFreDerick  La  Eue  ifting     395 

LETTER  II. 


Coming  to  the  Church  and  coming  to  Christ  essen- 
tially the  same.  The  excuse  of  unworthiness  is  really  an  as- 
sertion of  worthiness,  and  is  a  marked  rejection  of  Christ. 


Dear  Friend: — 

In  my  first  letter  you  may  think  that  I  confound 
the  two  things,  that  are  entirely  distinct — coming  to  Christ, 
and  coming  to  the  church.  I  do  not  confound  them,  for  they 
are  essentally  the  same.  What  is  the  church?  What  are  the 
sacraments,  but  the  representation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ? 
Entering  the  church  is  but  seeking  the  society  of  the  Lord; 
coming  to  baptism,  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  is  but  seeking 
the  Lord — to  have  Him  dwell  within  us  as  our  life.  You 
will  find,  I  trust,  hereafter,  that  the  whole  Christian  life,  from 
the  first  thought  of  love  and  trust  in  Jesus,  to  the  last  effort  of 
hand  or  heart  for  Him,  is  all  coming  to  Christ,  and  putting 
on  Christ.  Coming  to  Christ  as  the  phrase  is  generally  un- 
derstood, is  trusting  Him  in  thought;  putting  the  hand  forth 
to  the  table  of  the  Lord  is  trusting  Him  in  act;  both  are  es- 
sentially the  same  exercise  of  faith.  Whosoever  has  a  right 
to  do  the  one,  has  a  right  to  do  the  other. 

That  very  unworthiness,  that  is  given  as  the  reason  for 
not  coming  to  the  communion,  is  also  often  the  reason, 
whether  acknowledged  or  not,  why  we  do  not  come  to 
Christ. 

We  cannot  have  too  deep  a  sense  of  our  unworthiness. 
But  when  I  say  or  feel  that  I  am  too  unworthy  to  come  to 
Christ,  I  show  plainly  that  I  neither  adequately  feel  my  un- 
worthiness, nor  know  the  character  and  office  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  fullness  of  the  offer  He  makes  to  us.  I 
should  not  have  thought  that  you  needed  instruction  on  this 
point,  but  we  all,  instructed  or  not,  fail  to  realize  as  we 
ought,  how  wide  open  is  the  door  to  eternal  life,  and  how  all- 
embracing  is  the  invitation  to  enter.     The  most  experienced 


396  ©elected  P$aim$  anD  ^onogtapjj0 

Christians  are  ever  learning,  more  and  more  fully,  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words,  "without  money  and  without  price." 

We  Protestants  profess  to  have  one  mediator  only — the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ — but  so  ingenious  is  Satan  and  the  de- 
ceitful heart,  that  often,  to  veil  and  excuse  its  real  unwilling- 
ness, it  alleges  that  it  is  unworthy  to  come  to  the  Lord. 
Now  this,  translated  into  plain  language,  means  this,  "I  am 
not  utterly  unworthy — I  am  not  entirely  lost  I  can  do 
something  to  help  myself.  I  can  get  ready  to  come  to  Christ. 
That  responsibility  rests  on  me."  And  so  the  soul  man- 
ufactures a  mediation  to  go  between  itself  and  Christ. 

And  it  calls  this  humility,  but  it  is  really  pride  and 
self-confidence.  It  does  not  deny  (but)  that  Christ  is  to 
do  something  for  it,  but  is  secretly  of  the  opinion  that  the 
greatest  part  of  the  work  is  to  be  done  by  itself.  It  would 
furbish  itself  up,  remove  a  good  deal  of  its  sinfulness,  partly 
redeem  itself,  and  then,  come  to  be  redeemed.  It  will  do 
anything  but  obey  the  simple  command,  "Come."  That 
would  be  too  dreadful;  that  would  be  to  own  that  it  is 
utterly  helpless,  lost,  and  guilty,  and  God  perfectly  just  in 
condemning  it — that  the  impenitent  soul  is  not  willing  to  do. 
Not  believing  in  God's  grace,  it  would  thereby  be  plunged 
into  despair.  No — it  would  rather  tire  its  head  and  paint 
its  face  like  another  Jezebel.  Saupitz  said  to  Martin  Luther 
"If  we  come  to  Christ  painted  sinners,  we  will  have  but  a 
painted  Saviour." 

When  that  poor  sinful  woman  who  washed  His  feet 
with  her  tears  came  to  our  Lord,  we  may  be  sure  that  she  did 
not  first  put  on  her  fine  clothes,  her  bracelets  and  ear-rings. 
If  she  had  such  things,  she  took  them  off  at  the  very  thought 
of  coming.  Not  in  costly  array  and  braided  hair  she  pre- 
sented herself  to  Him,  but  dishevelled  and  weeping,  she 
brought  only  her  sinful,  ruined  self — and  that  was  just  what 
the  Saviour  wanted.  That  was  what  He  came  from  heaven 
to  seek  and  to  save.  As  she  came,  so  must  we  all  come  to 
Him,  bringing  only  our  sinful,  'ruined  selves,  without  any 


Eetn  jFreDettck  JLa  i&ue  fcing      397 

preparation  of  good  thoughts  or  good  feelings.  He  is  the 
A.  and  Z.  of  Christian  experience.  There  is  nothing  be- 
fore A,  and  so  there  is  in  the  Christian  life  nothing  before 
Christ. 

LETTER  III. 


Nothing  need  precede  our  coming  to  Christ,  not  even 
the  consciousness  of  having  faith,  contrition,  etc.,  which 
coming  to  Christ  seems  to  imply. 


Dear  Friend : — You  may  say  that  deep  conviction  of  sin  and 
contrition  must  precede  our  coming  to  Christ.  No,  there 
is  no  must  about  it.  They  often  do  precede.  So,  great 
hunger  often  preceds  eating,  but  we  daily  eat  without 
great  hunger.  Conviction  of  sin  does  not  begin  the  Christian 
life.  Conviction  of  sin  itself  is  mere  despair.  It  is  of  ser- 
vice in  leading  man  to  give  up  all  idea  of  helping  himself, 
and  so  far,  makes  him  ready  to  accept  the  Saviour  when 
offered.  But  it  no  more  brings  the  Saviour  to  him,  or  en- 
ables him  to  accept  the  Saviour,  than  extreme  hunger  fur- 
nishes the  starving  wretch  with  food. 

Many  eminent  Christians  have  come  to  Christ  without 
having  first  suffered  the  pangs  of  conviction.  John  Newton, 
who  always  owned  himself  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  sinners, 
and  the  most  completely  lost,  says  that  he  had  not  a  moment's 
time  to  feel  the  agonies  of  a  new  conviction.  The  Lord 
entered  at  once  into  his  soul,  and  filled  it  on  the  instant 
with  light  and  peace;  so  that  he  realized  what  a  great  sinner 
he  was,  only  after  he  realized  that  his  sins  were  all  washed 
away  in  the  blood  of  the  covenant. 

But  you  may  say,  I  must  certainly  have  faith  first.  To 
come  to  Christ  is  to  trust  in  Christ,  and  I  cannot  trust  with- 
out faith,  and  that,  the  Scripture  says,  "is  the  gift  of  God." 
Now,  here  is  a  nice  point.  I  do  not  believe  that  a  scien- 
tific solution  of  it  can  be  given  so  that  the  reason  shall  be  per- 


398  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpbs 

fectly  satisfied.  But  one  can  be  given,  sufficient  for  all 
practical  purposes.  One  day  four  men  brought  a  sick  friend 
to  our  Lord.  He  was  paralyzed.  He  could  not  move 
hand  or  foot.  Now  mark  how  the  Saviour  healed  him. 
He  did  not  first  remove  the  palsy  and  then  tell  him  to  arise. 
But  while  he  was  still  helpless  with  the  disease,  He  said  to 
him,  "Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto  thy  house." 
Now  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  do  that.  It  was  even 
impossible  for  him  to  will  to  do  it.  For  such  is  the  consti- 
tution of  the  human  mind,  that  we  cannot  will  to  do — that 
is,  make  a  true  effort  to  do  anything  unless  we  have  the  con- 
sciousness that  we  possess  the  power  to  do  it.  Now  there  the 
man  lay;  to  obey  the  command,  was  the  only  way  he  could 
be  cured;  and  yet,  he  could  not  obey  the  command.  He 
could  not  even  make  a  true  effort  to  obey,  yet  he  did  rise, 
take  up  his  bed  and  go  to  his  house.  It  was  because  he 
willed  not  in  himself  but  in  Christ.  Let  me  illustrate.  Place 
a  heavy  weight  in  the  hand  of  a  man  so  sick  that  he  can 
hardly  lift  his  hand.  Tell  him  now  to  lift  the  weight.  He 
cannot  even  will  to  lift  it.  But  place  your  hand  under  his, 
and  say,  "Lift,  and  I  will  lift  with  you."  Then  he  can  both 
will  to  do  and  do  it.  So  the  poor  palsied  man  looked  at 
Christ.  He  believed  that  He  would  will  with  him,  that 
Christ's  will  would  be  under  his  will,  Christ's  power  under 
his  power,  and  he  was  able  to  will  and  do. 

An  acute  person  can  still  find  difficulties,  philosophy 
would  not  be  satisfied  with  the  explanation.  But  it  is 
enough  to  enable  one  rationally  to  act.  The  word  of  com- 
mand, "Come,"  is  a  word  of  power,  it  enables  us  to  obey 
as  truly  as  the  words,  "Come  forth"  enabled  Lazarus  to 
obey.  This  is  to  the  Greeks  (people  who  demand  a  scien- 
tific explanation  of  everything)  "foolishness,"  but  it  is,  for 
all  that  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  ( 1  Cor.  1  :22- 
24.)  No,  if  you  desire  to  be  able  to  come  to  Christ,  you 
must  come  to  Christ. 


Eetn  iFreDeuck  la  Eue  King      390 

"Ho,  ye  needy,  come  and  welcome! 
God's  free  bounty  glorify. 
True  belief  and  true  repentance. 
Every  grace  that  brings  us  nigh. 

Without  money, 
Come  to  Jesus  Christ  and  buy." 
There  is  the  paradox  of  grace!  There  is  the  foolish- 
ness of  God,  wiser  than  men.  Surely,  true  belief  and  true 
repentance  are  necessary  to  enable  us  to  come  to  Christ,  yet 
those  and  all  other  graces  to  enable  us  to  come  to  Christ,  yet 
Christ,    we  must  get  by  coming  to  Christ  for  them. 

What  then  have  we  to  wait  for?     Come  then  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  now,  without  waiting  a  moment. 

LETTER  IV. 


Salvation  is  not  to  be  besought,  but,  being  freely  of- 
fered it  is  to  be  simply  taken. 
Dear  Friend: — 

Do  you  ask,  what  is  coming  to  Christ? 
Coming  to  Christ  is  trusting  Christ,  by  taking  what  He 
offers.  If  you  offered  a  starving  man  food  and,  instead  of 
taking  it  he  should  still  continue  to  beg  for  it,  would  it  not 
show  that  he  did  not  put  any  confidence  in  your  offer?  And 
is  it  not  dishonoring  our  Lord,  when  He  says,  "Come,"  to 
stand  aloof,  and  request  permission  to  come?  So  the  Med- 
ieval church  stood  aloof  from  Christ  and  agonized  in  prayer 
to  Him  for  salvation.  The  consequence  was  that  Christ 
became  to  them  a  stern  judge,  and  they  made  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  a  mediator  between  the  sinner  and  Christ.  No,  there 
are  many  things  we  may  ask  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — 
help,  healing,  guidance,  light,  etc.,  but  to  be  justified  in  Him, 
to  enter  into  the  state  of  salvation  through  Him,  that,  we 
must  not  ask  for;  we  must  claim.  It  is  offered,  we  have 
only  to  take  it. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  states  all  this,  as  we  would 
never  dare  to  do,  had  we  not  His  very  words.     He  describes 


400  Selected  p$alm$  anD  ^onograp&s 

Himself  as  merely  a  minister,  a  steward,  to  whom  God  the 
Father  has  entrusted  gifts  to  distribute  to  men,  which  gifts 
He  cannot  withhold  from  those  for  whom  the  Father 
destined  them.  He  says  (John  6:38  and  39.)  See  also 
(Ps.  68:18)  "For  I  came  down  from  heaven  not  to  do 
mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me.  And  this 
is  the  Father's  will,  that  of  all  which  He  hath  given  me  I 
should  lose  nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  at  the  Last  Day/' 
And  now  if  you  ask  for  whom  the  Father  has  destined  this 
great  gift  of  salvation  which  he  has  entrusted  to  the  Son,  the 
next  verse  (40th)  tells,  "And  this  is  the  will  of  Him  that 
sent  me,  that  every  one  that  seeth  the  Son  and  believeth  on 
Him,  may  have  everlasting  life." 

Indeed  God  the  Father  is  represented  as  having  bound 
Himself,  in  such  a  manner,  to  save  all  who  have  recourse  to 
Him  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  He  cannot  re- 
fuse them.  (Heb.  6:17)  Not  only  does  the  sacrifice  of 
our  Lord  on  the  cross  enable  God  to  be  just  and  (yet) 
justify  the  sinner  who  believes  (Rom.  3:26)  but  makes  it 
unjust  for  God  to  withhold  salvation  from  one  who  ap- 
proaches Him  in  the  way  He  has  appointed.  (1st  John, 
1  :9)  No  permission  then,  is  needed  for  us  to  enter  the 
blessed  home  of  God.  It  is  our  right.  Indeed,  so  anxious 
is  our  Lord  to  show  us  that  we  have  waited  for  nothing, 
but  enter  at  once  into  the  state  of  grace,  that  He  says,  "The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  the  violent  take 
it  by  force."  (Matt.  1  1  :12)  Think  of  the  condescension  of 
God!  Of  the  gifts  of  His  grace  He  speaks  in  this  way  to 
reassure  us.  It  is  just  as  if  He  would  say,  "You  need 
ask  no  questions.  You  need  not  say,  'By  your  leave' — 
lay  hands  straight  upon  that  which  may  be  had  for  the 
seizing  of  it."  What  more  can  our  Lord  say  to  show  us 
that  salvation  is  free. 

"And  as  the  bird  each  fond  endearment  tried, 
To  tempt  its  new  fledged  offspring  to  the  skies, 
He  tried  each  art,  rebuked  each  dull  delay." 


Eteto*  jFreDerick  La  Eue  I&ma      401 

LETTER  V. 


The  peace  and  joy  that  fill  the  soul  immediately  upon 
the  act  of  faith,  fully  warranted;  though  we  may  seem  to 
ourselves  not  a  whit  changed  for  the  better.  But  the  change 
then  entered  upon  is  tremendous  and  transcendent,  being  a 
deliverance  from  ourselves. 


Dear   Friend: — 

I  can  easily  fancy  you  yet  incredulous. 
You  may  ask  me,  "Do  you  mean  to  say  that  I  can  take  out 
my  watch  and  before  three  seconds  have  passed  on  the  dial 
I  can  make  my  peace  with  God,  entering  into  a  state  of 
salvation,  and  may,  with  reason,  allow  my  heart  to  fill  with 
the  peace  and  joy  of  the  Christian?"  Now  consider:  dur- 
ing the  passage  of  three  seconds,  an  angel  could  come  from 
Heaven  and  tell  you  that  you  were  a  child  of  God  and 
heir  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  If  this  took  place  you 
would  not  wait  the  tenth  part  of  a  second  before  peace  and 
joy  would  fill  your  heart.  Now  One  greater  than  an  angel 
has  assured  us  all  in  these  words,  "Whosoever  will  may 
take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."  "Whosoever"  includes 
you,  therefore,  to  you  it  is  said,  "Take,  and  you  shall 
have."  And  how  long  a  time  is  needful  for  you  to  take? 
How  long  a  time  for  you  to  look  up  and  say,  "Lord  I 
believe."  "I  trust  myself  to  Thee,  I  give  myself  to  Thee." 
And  when  should  you  allow  assurance  and  peace  to 
enter  your  heart?  Why,  the  moment  of  your  act  of  trust; 
if  at  the  moment  of  your  act  of  trust,  you  believe  that  our 
Lord's  invitation  is  a  sincere  one.  If  a  man  who  has  needed 
a  large  sum  of  money  to  save  him  from  bankruptcy  should 
apply  to  a  rich  friend  and  be  told,  "Yes,  you  shall  have 
the  money  at  once,"  at  what  moment  should  his  anxiety 
cease?  Why,  at  the  moment  his  friend  uttered  these  words; 
that  is,  if  he  believed  his  friend  meant  what  he  said.     He 


402  Selected  psalms  ana  ^onograpijg 

would  not  wait  till  he  got  the  money  in  hand.  Nor  need 
we  wait  till  we  are  conscious  of  a  work  of  grace  in  our 
hearts — till  we  see  evidence  in  ourselves  that  we  are  chil- 
dren of  God,  before  we  call  ourselves  such  and  enjoy  the 
confidence  and  peace  proper  to  such  a  happy  relation. 
When  Jesus  told  the  ten  lepers  to  go  and  show  themselves  to 
the  priests  (Luke  17:12-14,)  that  they  might  get  the 
certitude  that  they  were  healed,  it  would  have  been  but 
mockery  had  he  not  intended  to  heal  them.  They  believed 
that  the  direction  He  gave  implied  a  promise  to  heal  so  the 
moment  they  started  they  might  well  dismiss  all  anxiety 
and  count  themselves  clean  and  restored  to  society.  One 
man  of  the  number,  a  grateful  Samaritan,  I  am  sure,  walked 
along  with  a  heart  full  of  delight  and  thankfulness,  though 
he  was  yet  a  leper,  white  as  snow.  So  I  believe  that,  if 
you  turn  your  face  to  God,  God  will  that  instant  turn  His 
face  towards  you;  if  you  choose  God,  God  will  that  instant 
choose  you.  If  you  hear  the  words  of  Christ,  "Come  to 
Me,"  and  will  come,  though  your  limbs  seem  palsied,  you 
do  come;  though  you  seem  a  million  miles  away  from 
Him,  He  is  at  that  moment  by  your  side,  and  He  will  never 
leave  you  nor  forsake  you. 

What  you  do,  is  nothing,  indeed;  but  the  effects  are 
tremendous  and  eternal.  The  hand  of  a  weak  child  may 
dip  a  wire  into  a  cup  of  quicksilver  and  establish  an  electric 
current  which  will  generate  in  a  moment  a  force  sufficient  to 
lift  3,000  pounds.  So  it  is  in  becoming  a  Christian — only 
the  effect  may  not  be  instantaneously  apparent.  If  you, 
though  your  faith  is  so  small  that  you  seem  to  yourself  faith- 
less, though  interest  is  so  small  that  you  seem  to  yourself 
indifferent,  will  only  truly  and  honestly  come  to  the  Lord 
for  what  the  Lord  has  to  give  you,  then  you  may  take  for 
granted  that  a  vital  relation  is  established  between  you  and 
Him  which  shall,  bye  and  bye,  become  a  vital  possession, 
and  shall  transform  your  body,  soul  and  spirit  into  His 
image. 


i&em  ^Frederick  JLa  Eue  l&mg      403 

"But,"  I  fancy  that  I  hear  you  say,  "is  this  the  whole 
story?  Is  the  whole  of  Christianity  to  be  summed  up  in  one 
spiritual  act — the  coming  of  Christ — which,  once  performed, 
entitles  a  man  to  everlasting  life,  just  as  a  ticket  purchased 
at  a  railroad  station  entitles  one  to  a  passage  in  the  cars? 
And  may  a  man,  simply  because  of  that  past  spiritual  act, 
feel  secure  in  a  possession  guaranteed  to  him  by  God  on  the 
ground  that  he  has  performed  the  full  condition  required?" 
I  have  known  those  who  regarded  the  matter  in  this  light; 
a  view  condemned  by  Scripture  and  sound  doctrine.  I 
hasten  to  say  then,  that  those  only,  who  preserve  the  at- 
titude of  trust  with  which  they  first  came  to  the  Lord,  have 
any  right  to  continued  peace  and  security.  (Heb.  10:38.) 
And  I  would  also  say  that  faith  in  Christ  is  of  such  a  tran- 
scendent nature,  that  it  begins  a  transformation  of  the  whole 
man,  body,  soul  and  spirit,  so  that  in  the  end,  if  faith  is  held 
in  exercise,  we  shall  be  presented  before  God's  Throne, 
"without  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing." 

I  have  previously  showed  you  what  it  was  to  come 
to  Christ;  the  question  is  now  in  order,  what  do  we  come 
to  Christ  for?  I  would  say  in  answer  to  this — Christians 
may  come  to  Christ  for  help,  healing,  guidance,  instruction 
and  many  other  things.  But  the  coming  to  Christ  which 
is  the  very  beginning  of  the  Christian  life- — the  Alpha  before 
which  there  is  nothing,  is  of  such  a  nature  that,  if  you  come 
to  Christ  merely  to  have  him  do  anything  for  you,  or  even  to 
work  anything  upon  you,  you  do  not  come  to  Christ  in 
this  sense  at  all.  You  may  think  this  is  a  strange  saying, 
but  it  is  literally  true.  You  come  to  Christ  to  be  saved 
from  what?  Some  such  illustration  as  this  is  often  used  to 
set  the  matter  forth.  A  man  is  in  a  quicksand,  helpless  and 
sinking.  A  person  comes  to  the  edge  of  the  firm  ground, 
and  throws  him  a  rope,  saying,  "Hold  fast  to  this,  and  I 
will  pull  you  out."  He  has  confidence  in  the  power  and 
willingness  of  the  one  who  offers  him  help,  clings  to  the 
rope  and  is  drawn  out.     In  a  like  manner  a  man  accepts 


404  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onogtapijg 

Christ's  offered  help  and  is  saved.  Now  this  is  good  as  an 
illustration,  but  fails  just  here.  The  man  in  the  quicksand 
is  separate  from  it.  But  sinful  man  is  his  own  quicksand. 
It  is  himself  that  he  needs  to  be  delivered  from.  As  Mil- 
ton quotes  Satan  as  saying,  "Which  way  I  fly  is  hell;  myself 
am  hell."  Sinners  are  their  own  jailers,  their  own  chains. 
The  marvellous  thing  about  man  is  that,  while  he  is 
made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  has,  in  spite  of  the  fall,  so 
much  there  is  lovely  and  excellent  in  him,  still  sin  is  at  the 
root  of  his  being.  As  the  psalmist  says,  "Behold,  I  am 
shapen  in  iniquity."  (Ps.  .51  :25)  And  a  thorough  con- 
viction of  sin  shows  a  man  that  it  is  not  something  that  be- 
longs to  him  like  a  disease  from  which  he  would  be  deliv- 
ered; it  is  not  like  the  shirt  of  Nersus,  from  which  Hercules 
could  not  deliver  himself  and  which  destroyed  him,  but  it  is 
the  sinner  himself.  A  man  who  has  not  this  thorough  con- 
viction thinks  sometimes,  "I  must  strive  against  sin  within 
me."  Vain  man.  That  very  "I"  that  is  going  to  strive 
is  itself  sinful;  and  sin  cannot  conquer  sin.  One  sin  can 
conquer  another — as  for  instance,  a  man  may  keep  from  get- 
ting drunk  that  his  hand  may  be  steady  to  shoot  and  do 
murder.  Much  of  the  temperance,  generosity,  self-devotion 
and  nobleness  of  the  world  is  of  this  character. 

LETTER  VI. 


Salvation  is  not  the  abasing  of  our  wills  before  God's 
will,  but  the  making  of  God's  will  ours. 


Dear  Friend:  — 

When  a  man  comes  to  be  convicted  of  sin, 
he  gets  to  know  two  things,  first  that  sin  is  not  an  essential 
part  of  his  nature,  that  he  is  not  forced  to  commit  one  single 
sinful  act.  And  second,  he  becomes  conscious  that  sin 
is  at  the  very  foundation  of  his  being  and  he  cannot  deliver 
himself  from  it.     Thus,  though  he  is  perfectly  free  to  do  or 


Kein  jFreOerick  La  Eue  l&tng      405 

not  to  do  any  wrong  act,  there  will  be  sin  in  anything  he 
does;  though  there  may  be  at  the  same  time  something 
praiseworthy  about  it.  Though  he  can  deliver  himself  from 
sins,  he  cannot  deliver  himself  from  sin.  Now  we  come  to 
Christ  to  be  delivered  from  sin.  You  may  say  that  sal- 
vation means  more  than  this;  that  it  comprises  deliverance 
from  sorrow,  poverty,  pain,  disease,  death,  and  the  world  of 
woe.  True;  but  all  these  dreadful  things  are  not  arbitrary 
punishments  of  sin;  they  follow  sin  by  an  inevitable  law  of 
the  universe  of  God.  They  are  no  more  arbitrary  than 
burning  is  the  arbitrary  punishment  of  putting  one's  hand 
into  the  fire. 

Deliverance  from  sin  includes  deliverance  from  all 
these  evils,  because  it  is  deliverance  from  the  source  of  all 
these.  So  does  salvation  include  peace,  joy,  wealth,  health, 
eternal  life  and  the  blessedness  of  the  world  to  come. 

Sin  is  separateness  from  God,  and  everything  evil  nat- 
urally flows  from  it.  Deliverance  from  sin  can  only  be  ef- 
fected by  unison  with  God,  and  everything  good  flows 
naturally  from  it.  Now,  a  man  in  a  state  of  sin  thinks  that 
he  may  acknowledge  Him  as  king,  and  even  be  ready  to 
worship  God,  as  really  as  he  is  separate  from  another  man. 
He  may  feel  his  dependence  upon  God,  he  may  own  God's 
power,  he  may  acknowledge  Him  as  king,  and  even  be 
ready  to  obey  everything  that  He  orders.  But  there  is  a 
reserve.  He  is  not  willing  to  have  his  will  swallowed  up 
in  God's  will  and  above  all,  he  is  not  able  to  find  great- 
er independence  and  liberty  through  that  surrender.  He 
cannot  say  with   Madam   Guyon, 

"And  in  Thy  boundless  will  to  find 
The   strength,    the   freedom   of   the   mind." 

The  man  in  a  state  of  sin  is  like  Saul,  who  is  willing 
enough  to  own  God  religiously  and  worship  Him,  but 
could  not,  would  not,  acknowledge  Him  as  the  real  ruler  of 
Israel.   He  could  not  understand  how  He  could  be  God  and 


406  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onogtapfjs 

at  the  same  time  be  king.  David,  on  the  contrary  (as  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart)  was  willing  that  God  should  be 
ruler  over  Israel  in  every  detail  of  national  life,  and  he,  him- 
self, but  a  sub-king  under  Him.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize 
how  much  David  gave  up  in  the  words,  "Thine  is  the  great- 
ness and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  and  the  victory,  and  the 
majesty.  Thine  is  the  kingdom,  O  Lord."  (1st  Chron. 
29:11.)  For  a  different  spirit  see  Dan.  4:30.  And  yet 
these  heathen  kings  could  at  times  make  profound  acknowl- 
edgments to  their  God. 

This  was  the  reason  why  Michael  despised  David  ( 2d 
Sam.  6 : 1 2-2 1  )  when  he  humbled  himself  to  dance  be- 
fore the  ark.  She  could  not  conceive  of  a  king  who  did 
not  keep  his  place,  and  here  was  a  king  who  was  behaving 
himself  before  the  Lord  as  a  common  servant  before  his 
master.  The  natural  man  is  willing  that  God  should 
keep  His  place,  if  he  is  only  allowed  to  keep  his  own.  He 
may  be  willing  that  God  should  rule  from  the  Heavens 
over  him,  but  not  on  the  earth  and  in  him.  Nay,  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  whom  our  Saviour  stigmatized  as 
hypocrites,  were  perfectly  willing  that  God  should  rule  over 
them.  There  was  nothing  that  they  were  not  willing  to  do, 
if  God  would  only  state  plainly  what  it  was  He  wished. 
They  were  also  as  ready  to  do  everything  that  could  be 
logically  deduced  from  the  distinct  statements  of  His  will 
that  He  had  given.  Their  rabbis  thought  the  week  well 
spent  in  meditating  how  to  keep  the  Sabbath  perfectly,  and 
as  to  bearing  burdens  on  the  Sabbath,  nothing  could  be  more 
punctillious  than  their  teaching  and  their  practice.  They 
taught  that  if  a  woman  should  wear  a  ribbon  pinned  on  her 
dress  it  would  be  a  dreadful  violation  of  the  law,  it  would 
be  labor,  the  bearing  of  a  burden.  No,  she  must  sew  it 
on  the  dress,  and  then  it  would  become  part  of  the  garment, 
there  would  be  no  breach  of  the  Sabbath  in  wearing  it. 
This  is  a  specimen  of  some  of  the  results  of  their  profound 
theological  study.     And  what  a  lovely  spirit  of  submission 


I&eu*  jFreDetick  La  Hue  ifting      407 

to  the  will  of  God  does  it  manifest.  What  righteousness 
too.  In  Isaiah,  1st  chapter,  1  1  th  to  1 4th  verses,  you  will 
see  what  the  prophet  thought  about  such  righteousness. 
And  you  know  what  our  Lord  thought  and  said  about  it 
(Matt.  23:  13-33.)  Never  were  people  so  determined 
to  do  the  will  of  God;  never  were  people  at  the  same  time 
so  averse  to  doing  the  will  of  God.  On  the  morning  of 
the  crucifixion  they  were  too  scrupulous  to  tread  the  pave- 
ment of  Pilate's  judgment  hall,  but  they  were  not  too 
scrupulous  to  hound  on  the  rabble  to  a  judicial  murder. 

Suppose  a  daughter  were  to  say  to  her  mother,  "Now, 
only  tell  me  distinctly  all  that  you  wish  me  to  do,  and  I 
will  always  do  it  as  strictly  and  accurately  as  I  can." 
What  kind  of  a  daughter  would  she  be?  And  would  the 
mother  rejoice  over  her?  I  think  not.  She  might  say  that, 
and  say  it  sincerely,  and  yet  hate  her  mother,  indeed 
would  not  such  words  imply  a  lack  of  love,  and  real  devo- 
tion? A  true  mother  does  not  care  what  her  daughter 
can  do  for  her,  she  craves  her  daughter's  self.  And  so 
God  does  not  ask  anything  of  us  because  He  asks  everything 
of  us,  even  our  very  selves.  And  how  far  are  those  from 
doing  this,  who  regard  God  as  an  infinite  powerful  official 
at  the  head  of  the  universe,  and  strive  with  all  their  might 
to  bend  themselves  to  His  will,  and  obey  all  His  com- 
mands. No,  unless  we  give  God  everything,  we  cannot 
give  Him  anything.  And  herein  is  seen  the  truth  of  the 
old  theological  maxim,  that  we  cannot  please  God  (try  as 
hard  as  we  may)  unless  we  are  in  a  state  of  Grace.  It 
sounds  like  a  hard  saying,  but  it  is  simply  common  sense, 
and  we  act  constantly  on  the  principle  (as  we  have 
shown)  in  daily  life.  Our  Saviour  tells  us,  "After  this  man- 
ner pray  ye."  He  means  that  it  is  the  only  manner  that 
we  can  rightly  pray.  The  only  view  to  take  of  God  that  is 
not  intolerable,  and  even  terrible,  is  to  regard  Him  as  our 
Father.     Take  any  other  view,  and  we  shall  be,  sooner  or 


408  Selected  psalms  and  sponograp&s 

later,  calling  upon  the  mountains  and  rocks  to  fall  upon 
us  and  hide  us  from  Him. 

And  if  God  is  our  Father  and  we  are  His  children 
we  cannot  please  Him  with  anything  that  is  not  done  in  a 
childlike  spirit.  And  how  can  we  have  that  childlike 
spirit  unless  we  are  conscious  that  we  are  really  God's  chil- 
dren (not  merely  His  creatures),  unless  we  are  led  by  His 
Spirit  as  they  are  led  by  the  spirit  of  their  parents,  who 
take  after  their  parents?  We  must  be  really  His  children, 
to  have  the  childlike  spirit.  That  is,  we  must  be  born,  "not 
of  blood,  nor  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  the  will  of  man,  but 
of  God"  (John  1  :13).  'Tis  only  the  true  rapport  of  a 
common  nature,  which  we  obey  of  ourselves,  then  only  we 
really  obey.  To  obey  commands  issued  by  God  as  an 
arbitrary  legislator  outside  of  us  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
keeping  ourselves  aloof  from  Him.  So  to  bend  our  will 
unlovingly  to  His  is  not  to  yield  ourselves  up  to  Him. 

A  captive  king  may  bow  to  the  power  of  his  con- 
queror, consent  to  walk  in  chains  after  his  triumphant  char- 
iot, and  may  obey  all  the  commands,  however  ignominious, 
that  may  be  laid  on  him.  But  there  is  one  ignominy  to 
which  he  will  never  submit — he  will  never  consent  to  be  a 
free  and  willing  subject.  He  will  never  give  up  his  slave- 
hood,  he  hugs  his  chains  because  they  leave  him — no,  they 
make  him,  a  king  in  will  and  aspiration.  So  the  soul 
separate  from  God  stands  aloof  from  Him  and  strives  to 
bend  its  will  to  His.  It  surrenders  and  surrenders,  but  it 
never  gives  up.  It  merely  retires  into  the  inmost  recesses  of 
its  being,  and  there  occupies  a  throne  from  which  it  will  not 
be  driven.  It  may  suffer  acute  tortures,  it  may  watch  to 
obey  with  pharasaical  scrupulousness,  but  still  it  will  hold 
itself,  with  imperial  spirit,  face  to  face  with  God,  and  inde- 
pendent. 


I&etn  jFteDenck  JLa  Eue  ifting      409 

LETTER  VII. 


Examples  of  this  surrender  of  the  will  in  the  earthly 
life.  God,  the  essence  of  all  that  the  true  man  holds  as 
sufficiently  furnishing  the  enabling  motive  to  this  surrender. 


Dear  Friend:  — 

It  may  be  thought  that  man,  because  he 
is  an  individual,  must  act  as  described  in  my  last  letter. 
Keep  ourselves  to  ourselves  to  be  free.  But  this  is  not  so. 
Man  is  endowed  with  a  self,  but  he  is  also  endowed  with 
a  power  of  giving  away  himself.  You  shall  see  two  persons 
— a  man  and  a  woman — separate  and  independent  souls; 
and  between  them  shall  kindle  up  a  feeling  that  shall  unite 
them  so  completely,  that  one  cannot  conceive  of  peace  or 
happiness  apart  from  the  other.  Nor  can  one  will  any- 
thing contrary  to  the  other's  will.  This  state  may  not  be 
permanent,  but  while  it  lasts,  it  is  an  image  of  the  relation 
that  should  subsist  between  ourselves  and  God,  and  proof 
that  such  a  relation  is  possible.  Not  merely  in  the  love 
that  causes  man  to  leave  father  and  mother  and  cleave  to 
his  wife,  can  he  give  himself  away.  For  country,  for  party, 
for  philanthropy,  for  truth,  for  righteousness,  for  honor,  and 
in  many  other  ways,  can  he  give  himself  away,  and  if  he 
did  it  in  all  these  ways  and  at  one  and  the  same  time  per- 
manently and  completely,  then  we  would  have  a  still  more 
perfect  likeness  of  the  surrender  of  the  soul  to  God,  which 
is  an  infinite  surrender  and  forever.  For,  as  I  said,  God 
is  not  merely  an  infinitely  powerful  official  at  the  head  of  the 
universe;  He  is  the  essence  and  infinite  perfect  ideal  of 
truth,  beauty,  peace,  joy,  love,  power,  wealth,  life,  pity, 
mercy — but  why  multiply  words?  Everything  worthy  is 
gathered  up  in  the  living,  loving  God.  To  stand  aloof 
from  Him  is  to  stand  aloof  from  all  that  is  excellent.  To 
join  oneself  to  God  is  to  receive  God  into  one's  soul — to 
become  everything  that  is  excellent. 


410  Selected  psalms  anD  e@onograpl)0 

But  you  may  say,  "Cannot  one  have  beautiful  moral 
qualities  apart  from  God?  Are  there  no  persons  unselfish, 
generous,  devoted,  and  who  are  not  religious,  and  who 
even  deny  the  existence  of  God?  And  are  there  not  many 
religious  persons  of  very  unlovely  characters?  '  Granted. 
Man  was  made  in  God's  image,  and  yet  retains  many 
traits  of  that  image.  You  may  cut  a  rose  from  its  bush, 
and  if  you  take  care  of  it,  it  will  retain  for  a  long  time  every- 
thing that  its  connection  with  a  bush  gave  it — everything 
except  permanency  of  life.  It  will  look  and  smell  the  same, 
but  it  is  practically  dead;  and  it  only  needs  certain  hours  to 
pass  to  make  its  death  manifest  to  all — petals  and  leaves 
and  stalk  will  all  wither.  Now  at  the  Fail  man  was  sev- 
ered from  the  source  of  his  life  and  became  practically 
dead.  In  some  circumstances  he  withers  away  very  rapidly, 
in  others,  where  he  is  surrounded  with  the  influences  of  true 
religion,  the  change  is  retarded  and  even  arrested. 

Not  till  the  day  of  Pentecost  could  the  severed  branch 
be  set  back  to  the  source  of  its  life — could  man  be  bap- 
tized into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Now  this  explains  the  beautiful  character  of  many 
who  are  apparently  without  religion.  It  is  a  trace  of  God's 
image  not  wholly  lost,  or  it  is  what  is  induced  upon  them  by 
the  surrounding  influences  of  Christian  society.  And  then 
we  must  consider  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  secret  religion. 
Many  are  looking  to  and  depending  on  God,  and  living  in 
Him  when  those  who  are  around  them  know  nothing  of  it, 
and  indeed  they  themselves  are  hardly  aware  that  it  is  so. 
And  then,  if  we  consider,  these  lovely  natural  characters,  we 
will  find  that  they  often  lack  symmetry  to  that  degree  that 
they  sometimes  become  moral  monsters.  Robespierre,  with 
his  guillotine,  and  the  anarchists  with  their  dynamite,  may 
be  called  sincerely  philanthropic.  And  in  daily  life  we  con- 
stantly meet  with  the  same  kind  of  inconsistency,  only  less 
striking  in  degree.  But  we  are  called  to  full-orbed  virtue. 
Not  in  one,  but  in  every  direction,  must  the  soul  ray  forth 


Eeth  jfreDertck  La  Eue  Mm      411 

towards  whatsoever  is  good  and  lovely  in  all  things  at  all 
times.  And  virtue  is  only  safe,  when  it  is  thus  universal; 
indeed  then  only  is  it  real  virtue.  This  is  why  we  say  that 
to  love  God  and  bow  our  wills  utterly  to  His,  is  not  only 
the  first  of  virtues,  but  that  which  includes  all  others. 

We  cannot  love  all  without  loving  The  All,  and  it  is 
just  as  true  that  we  cannot  embrace  God  without  embracing 
all  that  He  has  made.  Madam  Guyon's  husband  said  once 
to  her,  "You  love  God  so  much  that  you  cannot  love  me  at 
all."  If  that  was  the  fact,  then  her  love  to  God  was  not 
what  it  ought  to  have  been;  for  "he  that  loveth  not  his 
brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he 
hath  not  seen?"  (1st  John  4:20.)  St.  Paul  says  of  all 
created  men  (Acts  1  7:28)  "For  in  Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being."  And  therefore  much  more  may  it  be 
said  of  God's  children  of  Grace,  "If  we  love  one  another, 
God  dwelleth  in  us  and  His  love  is  perfected  in  us."  (1st 
John  4:12)  That  is,  loving  others  is  the  best  way  of  loving 
God,  and  when  others  love  us,  that  is  the  most  precious 
manifestation  of  His  love.  Does  it  seem  a  hard  thing  to  you 
to  submit  to  the  will  of  God?  Why,  you  cannot  ride 
on  horseback  without  recognizing  and  obeying  implicitly  His 
will  in  the  law  of  gravitation  that  He  has  made;  and  His 
laws  are  all  like  that.  The  true  conception  of  submission 
to  the  will  of  God,  is  not  the  forcing  our  wills  to  bend 
before  an  external  will.  That  is  not  the  way  we  obey  the 
law  of  gravitation.  That  law  is  in  ourselves,  it  is  a  part  of 
ourselves,  we  would  not  have  it  otherwise,  and  in  just  this 
way  are  we  to  obey  all  God's  will. 

We  may — nay,  we  must,  be  spontaneous  and  free, 
or  we  have  not  submitted  to  God.  Indeed  it  is  the  only 
way  to  attain  true  liberty.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  words, 
"I  will  put  My  law  into  their  hearts,  and  in  their  minds  will 
I  write  them."  (Heb.  10:16.)  And  "In  the  hidden  parts 
thou  shalt  make  me  to  know  wisdom."  (Ps.  51  :6)  That 
is,  all  my  impulses,  the  nature  that  lies  beneath  the  will,  will 


412  Selected  psalms  anD  ^onograpljs! 

be  right.  If  you  dread  becoming  a  Christian  because  you 
dislike  the  prospect  of  doing  many  things  you  have  no  relish 
for,  and  to  deny  yourself  many  things  you  desire,  be  as- 
sured that  God  dislikes  to  have  you  do  so  more  than  you 
yourself  dislike  it.  You  may  indeed  have  to  do  many  things 
that  are  trying,  but  if  the  relish  is  not  greater  than  the  dis- 
relish, it  is  not  perfectly  pleasing  to  God.  Said  Garibaldi 
to  his  followers,  "The  rewards  I  offer  you  are  hunger,  thirst, 
weariness,  prison,  wounds,  pain,  death."  But  none  the  less 
they  willingly  offered  themselves,  and  Italy  became  free.  In 
the  fight  with  the  Merrimac  Lieut.  Worden,  who  com- 
manded the  Monitor,  was  thought  to  have  lost  his  eye- 
sight. After  all  was  over,  he  asked  but  one  question — "Is 
the  Merrimac  beaten  off?"  "Yes."  "Then  I  don't  care 
what  becomes  of  me."  This  is  meant  to  illustrate  not 
only  the  completeness  of  the  surrender  to  God's  will  that  I 
should  urge,  but  the  kind  of  a  motive  there  is  for  such  a 
surrender.  We  can  see  motive  enough  for  us  to  suffer  for 
freedom  for  one's  country.  The  red,  white  and  blue  of  our 
country's  flag,  who  can  see  it  in  a  strange  land  without  a 
thrill?  Around  that  beloved  emblem  gather  thoughts  of 
what  is  most  precious  to  us — home,  kindred,  the  blessings  of 
liberty,  the  hope  of  mankind.  Under  that  fluttering  symbol 
how  willingly  marched  our  brothers  to  battle  and  death. 
They  followed  wherever  it  lead;  to  shield  it  from  insult  they 
held  their  lives  cheap.  They  forgot  self,  they  cast  away 
themselves  for  their  flag.  And  all  that  flag  meant  to  them 
and  means  to  us,  God  is,  and  ten  thousand  times  more. 
The  flag,  precious  as  it  is,  is  but  a  symbol;  God  is  the 
reality — home,  hope  and  liberty  for  the  world,  for  the  uni- 
verse. If  Worden's  satisfaction  was  perfect,  no  matter  what 
became  of  him,  can  we  not  understand  the  words  of  our 
Lord,  (Mark  8:35)  "Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it;  and  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  and  the 
Gospel's,  shall  save  it?" 


Retn  jFreOeuck  JLa  Eue  Mm      413 

LETTER  VIII. 


This  surrender  not  in  the  power  of  the. will;  the  new 
birth   necessary. 


Dear   Friend: — 

I  heard  a  certain  German  general  say  the 
other  day,  "Not  one  of  us  but  would  lay  his  neck  upon  any 
block  for  our  dear  Emperor."  And  now  think  of  our  Em- 
peror— Our  Father  in  Heaven.  Is  it  so  hard  to  receive 
God  as  our  Father?  Easy  enough  if  our  Father  were  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  but  how  impossible,  of  ourselves,  when 
He  is  sovereign  of  all  worlds.  For  a  moment,  for  one  whom 
we  love,  for  our  country,  for  a  finite  object,  we  can  forget 
ourselves  and  cast  all  away.  But  for  all  men,  for  all  worlds, 
for  all  time,  for  eternity,  for  God  who  sums  up  all  that  is 
worth  the  sacrifice  of  self — this  infinite  surrender  of  self,  so 
glorious  is  not  for  us  with  our  unaided  strength  to  make. 
We  can  kill  ourselves,  but  to  kill  oneself  and  yet  live,  that  is 
not  for  us  to  effect.  And  yet  this  alone  is  salvation.  To  be- 
come Godlike,  that  is  to  be  saved.  Said  I  not  well  that  this 
man  is  his  own  quicksand,  that  he  must  be  delivered  from 
himself  if  he  is  to  be  saved?  And  it  is  as  impossible  to  de- 
liver one's  self  as  it  is  to  step  off  one's  shadow.  Re- 
solve to  obey  all  God's  commands,  and  your  resolutions  will 
amount  to  nothing.  And  if  your  resolution  held  firm,  and 
God  should  intimate  His  will  distinctly  and  definitely  in 
everything  and  at  every  moment,  our  very  souls  would  be 
paralyzed  by  the  constraint  and  self-watch.  We  would 
render  to  God  no  better  worship  than  the  postures  of  an 
automaton.  God  does  not  want  a  machine  for  a  son,  but 
a  living,  breathing  man,  and  a  free  man,  who  does  as  he 
pleases,  and  yet  pleases  Him. 

Unless  we  find  out  ourselves  what  will  please  God  and 
do  it  of  ourselves,  we  can  never  please  Him.  Could  any 
friend  please  us  on  any  other  terms?     Who  could  endure 


414  Selected  psalms  ano  ^onograpfjs 

a  friend  to  whom  one  would  have  to  issue  specific  requests 
for  any  friendly  words  or  deeds  that  we  should  have  from 
him?  We  could  no  more  have  intercourse  with  such  a  per- 
son, than  with  something  that  we  kept  moving  by  turning  a 
crank.  But  how  can  we  be  friends  of  God  in  this  spontan- 
eous way?  It  cannot  be  by  any  effort  of  our  own.  Let 
us  then  cease  from  our  striving.  "Behold,"  as  the  Apostle 
says,  "I  show  you  a  more  excellent  way,"  even  the  way  of 
the  New  Birth.  That  giving  up  of  self  that  I  have  been 
describing  is  just  what  the  Scriptures  call  it — it  is  death. 
We  give  up  all  the  life  that  is  ours,  and  receive  a  new  life 
from  the  Lord.  Just  as  the  chrysalis  dies  to  its  chrysalis 
state,  in  unfolding  its  wings  as  a  butterfly,  so  do  we  cast  off 
self  by  means  of  the  new  birth,  and  find  ourselves  again  in 
God.  We  submit  ourselves  to  God  and  find  ourselves  for 
the  first  time  true  freemen. 

We  do  not  come  to  Christ,  then,  to  be  delivered  from 
any  perilous  position — to  be  plucked  back  from  the  world  of 
woe.  It  is  not  an  outside  danger  that  we  have  to  dread, 
but  the  danger  within — source  and  fountain  of  all  ills. 
Without  a  thorough  change,  wherever  we  may  be  we  are 
lost,  and  with  that  change,  wherever  we  may  be  we  are 
saved.  We  come  to  Christ  to  have  that  change  wrought 
in  us. 

The  inquiry  is  in  order  then — what  are  the  means  by 
which  this  change  is  affected?  And  here  must  be  noted 
another  point  in  which  the  quicksand  illustration  fails.  If 
I  were  in  the  quicksand,  I  would  only  want  to  know  about 
the  man  who  offered  to  pull  me  out,  whether  he  was  able 
and  willing  to  deliver  me.  It  would  matter  nothing  to  me  what 
sort  of  man  he  was.  If,  however,  his  pulling  me  out  of  the 
quicksand  made  me  like  him,  I  might  well  hesitate  and  in- 
quire as  to  his  character;  for  there  are  men  so  base  and  de- 
graded, that  I  had  better  be  swallowed  up  in  the  quicksand 
than  be  made  like  them.  Now  the  necessary  condition  to  our 
Lord's  saving  us  is  in  our  being  made  like  Him,  indeed  that  is 
salvation  itself.     And  it  behooves  us  to  ask  ourselves,  we 


Ifteto*  jFre&erick  La  Eue  iftins      415 

who  are  seeking  to  be  saved,  "Do  I  really  desire  to  be  like 
Christ?"  For  there  are  some  seekers  so  base  and  degraded 
in  their  views  that  the  salvation  that  they  seek,  if  they  only 
knew  it,  is  the  very  destruction  that  they  dread.  To  be 
redeemed,  that  very  thing  must  die  which  they  wish  to 
save. 

We  have  seen  that  evil  from  which  we  are  to  be  de- 
livered is  not  something  external  to  ourselves,  it  is  ourselves. 
And  so  our  Lord  saves  us,  not  by  means  of  anything  external 
to  Himself — He  saves  by  imparting  Himself  to  us.  Not  by 
doing  anything  for  us,  or  working  by  His  power  any  change 
in  us,  but  by  joining  us  to  Himself,  and  making  us  one  with 
Himself.  So  that,  as  the  smallest  branch  of  a  vine  has  all 
the  precious  qualities  and  characteristics  of  the  vine,  we  by 
being  set  into  Him  come  to  be  like  Him,  because  we  are 
become  part  of  Him,  John  15:5.  This  is  the  new  birth, 
without  which  no  one  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
When  Nicodemus  (John  3rd  chapter)  came  to  our  Lord 
by  night,  he  thought  he  was  acknowledging  his  highest 
claims  in  acknowledging  that  he  was  a  teacher  sent  from 
God.  Our  Lord  shows  him  at  once  that  he  must  be  some- 
thing more  than  this,  or  he  could  not  be  a  saviour  at  all. 
His  answer  amounts  to  this:  "Though  I  taught  all  I  know, 
though  you  obeyed  me  implicitly,  though  you  loved  me 
with  your  whole  heart,  you  would  still  stand  outside  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  till  bom  again."  Does  this  appear 
to  you  as  it  did  to  him, — a  very  discouraging  doctrine, 
and  the  conditions  required  impossible  of  realization?  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  an  encouraging  doctrine,  and  the  new 
birth  is  a  possible  thing.  Consider  how  many  persons 
there  are  of  whom  we  are  apt  to  say, — "It  is  very  easy 
for  them  to  be  good."  Their  very  nature  lifts  them  out 
of  the  power  of  many  of  the  common  temptations  of  life. 
And  then,  on  the  other  hand,  how  many  there  are  who 
seem  by  their  very  nature  predestined  to  evil,  com- 
pletely   in    the .  power    of    tendencies    that    make    them- 


416  Selected  psalms  ano  s@onograpi)0 

selves  and  every  one  around  them  miserable.  Education 
and  self-discipline  can  do  something  (but  after  all,  how 
little!)  to  change  birth  characteristics.  We  are  for  the 
most  part  as  we  are  born,  and  although  alike  free,  we 
differ  so  much  from  each  other,  and  these  different  charac- 
teristics so  surely  direct  our  lives,  that  a  man  may  be  said  to 
be  born  victorious  or  defeated,  with  a  happy  or  miserable 
life  in  the  bud.  His  efforts  will  no  more  avail  to  change 
this  than  the  efforts  of  a  rose  bud  will  avail  to  change 
itself  into  the  bud  of  another  flower.  Who  could  by  any 
effort  become  a  musician  like  Mozart,  a  painter  like  Raphael, 
or  a  sculptor  like  Michael  Angelo?  They  are  born  so. 
Now  if  God  can  cause  men  to  vary  thus  at  birth  according 
to  the  laws  he  has  affixed  to  heredity,  while  all  alike  are  free 
and  responsible,  is  it  not  conceivable  that  He  by  His  omni- 
potant  power  could  work  such  a  change  in  a  grown  man 
as  would  endow  him  with  qualities  that  he  would  have 
by  heredity,  had  his  ancestry  been  different?  And  what 
more  blessed  gift  from  God  to  us  could  there  be  than  such 
an  exertion  of  His  power  as  should  endow  us  with  the 
most  perfect  human  qualities,  and  make  it  as  natural  as 
breathing  for  us  to  live  a  perfect  human  life? 

LETTER  IX. 


And  this  new  birth  and  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  within  us  renders  possible  the  free  development  of 
natural  powers,  and  the  resulting  variety  of  Christian  charac- 
ter. 


Dear  Friend: — 

We  are  not  left  to  conjure  in  this  matter  the  trans- 
figuration and  use  of  the  natural  by  God's  gracious  Spirit. 
The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man,  and  God  as  well  as  man, 
and  as  he  had  power  to  send  forth  "virtue"  (Mark  5  :30) 


Eein  jFreOenck  La  Eue  i&ing     417 

to  change  disease  into  health,  so  those  who  in  faith  join 
themselves  to  Him,  He  has  power  to  join  actually  to  His 
person.  So  that  they  become  sons  of  God,  even  as  He 
is  son  of  God  (John  1st,  12-26).  For  he  is  the  first  born 
among  many  brethern.  (Romans  8:29.)  No  new  faculties 
are  introduced,  we  are  essentially  the  same  persons  as  be- 
fore, only  a  divine  force  goes  through  all  our  being,  lifting 
us  up  into  a  higher  and  spiritual  sphere  of  life.  It  is  just 
like  the  bud  of  a  rose  tree  set  into  the  branch  of  a  healthy 
rose  tree  of  another  kind,  which  grows  in  accordance  with 
its  own  peculiar  life,  but  is  possessed  by  the  energy  of  the 
bush  into  which  it  is  set,  and  grows  as  it  could  not  have 
grown  on  the  branch  from  which  it  is  taken.  This  roughly 
illustrates  the  matter  but  to  explain  fully  is  beyond  our 
power.  It  is  one  of  the  deep  things  of  God.  The  Apostle 
(Eph.  5:30)  says,  "We  are  members  of  His  body  ",  but 
also  says  (v.32)  "This  is  a  great  mystery."  How  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  must  be  seperate  from  us,  or  we  could 
not  admire,  love,  obey  or  adore  Him,  should  be  still  joined 
to  us  so  that  we  should  be  in  Him, — that  is  indeed  hard 
to  be  understood. 

Both  facts,  however,  may  be  grasped  and  harmonized 
in  our  spiritual  experience;  and  we  are  helped  to  do  this 
by  the  conception  of  God  that  the  church  presents  to  us  as 
deduced  from  the  Word  of  God,  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  God  the  Father,  invisible  and  incomprehensible, 
at  the  root  of  all  things,  so  satisfying  our  demand  for  law 
and  order,  and  unity  everywhere.  God  the  Son,  visible  com- 
prehensible and  near,  satisfying  our  craving  for  a  teacher, 
a  ruler  and  a  friend.  And  third  in  the  Trinity, — God  the 
Holy  Spirit, — God  within  us, — soul  of  our  souls,  inhabit- 
ing all  our  powers  and  faculties,  lying  at  the  root  of  our 
being,  and  making  us  in  the  hidden  part  to  "Know  wisdom" 
"(Ps.  5:1-6).  It  is  the  fact  of  this  third  person  in  the  ador- 
able Trinity  that  enables  us  to  conceive  how  we,  keeping 


418  ^electeD  psalms  and  ^onograpjjs 

our  individuality  distinct  from  the  Lord,  can  yet  be  joined 
to  Him, — how  we,  born  of  the  earth,  earthy,  can  be  re- 
born brothers  of  the  Lord  from  Heaven, — how  we,  retain- 
ing all  our  freedom,  can  be  made  to  possess  the  blessed  traits 
of  Our  Lord's  perfect  character.  The  Holy  Spirit  brings 
into  our  inmost  soul  something  from  Christ  that  moulds 
and  makes  us  like  Him.  Just  as  the  white  light  of  heaven 
passing  through  a  stained  window  falls  tinged  with  the  color 
upon  the  pavement  below. 

It  cannot  be  too  earnestly  insisted  on  that  we  are  not 
free  in  all  this,  but  retain  our  individual  characteristics. 
Some  persons  think  that  Christianity  consists  in  moulding 
ourselves  into  something  other  than  we  are.  Some  indeed, 
strange  to  say,  pass  their  lives  in  a  struggle  against  a  taste 
for  music  or  painting.  Fighting  against  nature,  they  are 
fighting  against  God.  The  mediaeval  idea  of  a  saint  was 
one  who  violated  every  tendency  of  his  being.  See  the 
self-inflicted  tortures  of  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary.  But  since 
Christ  came  in  the  flesh  He  has  sanctified  human  nature  in  all 
its  parts,  in  all  its  natural  impulses.  And  all  these  it  becomes 
our  duty  to  dedicate  to  God.  And  we  dedicate  them  to  God, 
not  by  stripping  ourselves  of  them,  but  by  using  them  in  God. 
And  here  the  priceless  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  enables 
us  to  see  how  God,  without  curtailing  our  freedom  or  mar- 
ring any  one  of  our  native  endowments,  can  work  mightily 
in  us,  "both  to  will  and  do  of  His  good  pleasure"  (Phil. 
2:12-13).  It  is  true  that  there  are  times  When  we  are  called 
upon  to  deny  ourselves, — to  cut  off  the  right  hand,  to  pluck 
out  the  right  eye  (Matt.  5:29-30),  but  'A  it  be  possible  we 
should  rather  use  them  for  the  glory  of  God. 

We  are  told  in  the  19th  Psalm  that,  though  all  days 
show  forth  the  glory  of  God,  yet  each  does  it  in  its  own 
peculiar  way,  so  that  as  it  is  poetically  expressed,  one  day 
has  something  to  tell  about  the  glory  of  God  to  another 
day,  that  it  did  not  know.     How  much  more  is  this  true 


Eein  ^Frederick  La  Eue  iftittg     419 

of  God's  children;  each  should  be  an  unique  Christian,  of- 
fering peculiar  praise  to  God,  and  serving  Him  in  a  peculiar 
way.  When  you  see  a  number  of  Christians  all  alike, — 
just  as  if  they  had  been  run  in  one  and  the  same  mould, 
you  see  persons  who  give  very  little  evidence  of  being  true 
Christians  at  all.  Where  there  is  life,  there  must  be  variety, 
individuality.  The  relations  God  established  with  each  soul 
are  peculiar  to  that  soul  alone.  He  comes  to  each  believer 
apart  from  all  others.  Madame  Guyon,  in  her  strong  meta- 
phorical language,  calls  herself  in  relation  to  the  Lord,  "a 
solitary  bride".  See  also  the  beautiful  figure  in  Canticles, 
3rd  chapter,  12-16  verses.  That  this  individuality  of  re- 
lation is  eternal  is  indicated  clearly  in  Rev.  2nd,  1  7th,  and 
the  fact  that  each  one  of  us  is  to  be  exactly  like  no  one 
else,  helps  us  to  conceive  how  God  can  love  each  of  us, 
and  for  ourselves,  as  we  love  a  friend.  And  this  individuality 
of  characteristics  involves  our  free  development  of  character. 
Dismiss,  then,  the  idea  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  of 
constraint  or  prohibition  or  denial.  It  is  exactly  the  opposite 
of  that.  The  Holy  Spirit  breathes  itself  into  the  church 
and  through  every  believer,  and  it  is  just  as  when  the  wind 
is  breathed  into  an  organ  and  visits  every  pipe, — each  pipe 
gives  its  own  sound  alone,  and  not  that  of  another.  And 
therefore  as  a  Christian  you  should  glorify  God  not  apart 
from,  but  through,  the  peculiar  tastes  and  faculties  and 
energies  you  have  freely  exercised. 


LETTER  X. 


But  till  we  are  perfect  we  must  look  to  the  Law  and 
heed  it,  or  we  will  be  led  astray.  There  will  be  no  bondage, 
however,  since  the  Law's  demands  are  in  harmony  with  the 
new  life. 


Dear  Friend: — 

Constraint  and  command  were  the  characteristics  of  the 
Old  Dispensation,  though  love  of  God  made  the  yoke  easy 


420  ©elected  Psalms  and  e@onograp&0 

to  such  as  David.  Liberty  is  the  characteristic  of  the  Gospel, 
and  if  we  were  perfect  Christians,  we  should  have  only  to 
act  from  our  impulses  and  desires.  In  that  case  "Love,"  as 
Wordsworth  says,  would  be  "an  unerring  light,  and  joy 
its  own  security".  So  strong  is  the  language  of  Scripture 
on  this  head  that  errorists  have  wrested  it  into  the  doctrine 
that  at  no  time  in  a  Christian's  career  need  he  regard  and 
obey  law.  This  would  be  true  if  when  we  came  to  Christ 
we  were  at  once  transformed  into  His  image.  But  the  fact 
is,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  in  us  at  its  first  beginnings  very 
small, — but  a  grain  of  mustard  seed.  Regeneration  is  one 
thing,  perfect  Santification  and  redemption  quite  another. 
We  come  to  Christ  to  be  joined  to  Christ,  to  be 
regenerated.  The  act  of  true  faith  effects  this.  A  trem- 
endous change  it  makes  in  our  condition.  We  become  Sons, 
sons  of  God  and  brethem  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Our  guilt  is 
gone  in  a  moment,  a  vital  relation  is  established  between 
us  and  the  Lord. 

But  vital  relation  is  not  vital  possession.  The  first  is 
established  in  a  moment,  by  the  act  of  God,  we  being  per- 
fectly passive;  the  second  requires  our  whole  lives,  and  in 
this  long  growth  in  grace  or  santification  we  are  active. 
It  is,  one  may  say,  our  work  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
through  the  Spirit.  And  it  is  just  because  so  much  sin 
remains  in  those  who  have  been  born  again,  that  they  must 
heed  the  law  and  be  judged  by  it.  But  the  Law  is  not 
their  life,  nor  is  obedience  to  the  Law.  Neither  is  the 
law  their  ideal.  Even  under  the  Old  Dispensation  servants 
of  God  were  pointed  to  God  himself  as  the  one  who  was 
their  great  exemplar.  But  under  the  New  Dispensation 
how  much  more  is  Christ  our  law  and  our  ideal.  You  then 
having  come  to  Christ  and  received  as  you  trust,  the  gifts 
of  regeneration,  which  you  cannot  be  conscious  of,  but 
must  take  for  granted,  as  the  lepers  whom  Christ  told 
to  show  themselves  to   the  priests,   took  for  granted  their 


Eetn  jfreDerick  £a  Rue  Mm     421 

cleaning,  must  in  the  spirit  of  those  lepers  begin  to  put  on 
Christ,  believing  that  Christ  works  in  you  to  make  you 
like  Himself.  We  should  ask  ourselves  often,  "What  would 
Christ  do  in  these  circumstances?"  And  then  strive  to  do 
that  very  thing.  If  we  make  the  effort  in  our  own  strength 
we  shall  probably  fail  in  doing  what  we  attempt  to  do 
and  even  when  we  succeed  it  will  not  be  genuine  success. 
A  forced  action  is  indeed  better  than  nothing,  but  it  is  not 
Christian  action;  that  is,  the  genuine  manifestation  of  the 
Christian's  real  nature,  upspringing  from  free  impulse,  not 
harnessed  and  bridled  impulse.  And  to  this  we  will  at- 
tain if  we,  realizing  that  it  is  impossible  of  ourselves  to  do 
what  we  are  called  upon  to  do,  believe  also  that  a  mighty 
will  and  power  works  with  our  power  to  enable  us  to  do 
what  our  Lord  under  the  circumstances  would  do.  No,  we 
must  believe  that  He  acts  by  and  through  us,  and  give  Him 
the  glory  for  it  all. 

To  no  slavery,  then,  are  you  called,  no  ascetic  self 
denial  is  required  of  you.  You  are  merely  asked  that, 
in  Christ,  you  should  turn  yourself  into  one  like  Christ. 
That  is  true  salvation,  and  they  who  think  they  have  sec- 
ured salvation  by  performing  some  condition  required  by 
God  or  going  through  some  intense  spiritual  exercise,  and 
then  feel  free  to  devote  themselves  to  more  congenial 
worldly  matters  (that  business  being  attended  to)  will  find 
themselves  dreadfully  mistaken.  We  cannot  choose  Christ 
to  have  Him  take  our  guilt  away,  to  deliver  us  from  the 
world  of  woe,  and  admit  us  to  the  world  of  glory,  without 
choosing  Him  in  all  acts  of  fairness  and  nobleness  and 
self  forgetting  disinterestedness,  courage,  loving  ministration 
and  cordiality.  But  why  attempt  to  make  a  catalogue  of 
what  are  innumerable?  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  you 
must  choose  Christ  in  all  the  acts  proper  to  a  beautiful, 
perfect  human  being.  This  hardly  expresses  it,  for  our 
Lord   is   something   above   humanity;    and   we    are    called 


422  ^electeQ  Psalms  anD  a^onogtapjjs 

upon  to  live  a  life  above  the  original  humanity, — just  as 
Lazarus  in  his  state  of  death  was  commanded  to  do  the 
acts  of  life.  Not  for  the  sake  of  being  a  beautiful  human 
being.  Not  for  the  sake  of  being  saved, — though  each 
such  act  of  choice  is  of  the  nature  of  a  saving  act  of  faith, 
whether  you  are  aware  of  it  or  not.  No, — the  motive 
should  be  love  of  Him  who  gave  Himself  for  you,  "The 
Just  for  the  unjust,"  and  for  love  of  your  brethren  of  God's 
great  family. 

Remember,  if  you  shrink  from  this  it  is  entirely  anal- 
ogous to  the  shrinking  that  we  could  conceive  a  lower  animal 
to  experience  at  the  thought  of  being  turned  into  a  higher 
animal.  The  nobler  life  it  cannot  appreciate,  it  cannot 
conceive  it  as  anything  else  than  torture.  Suppose  a  fish 
swimming  in  the  water  should  look  up  at  a  man  walking 
on  the  bank  and  be  told  that,  if  it  only  wished,  it  could 
be  turned  into  a  man;  it  would  certainly  shrink  from  it; 
for  to  be  a  fish  would  seem  better.  An  invitation  akin  to 
that  is  given  to  you.  Do  not  consider  it  a  call  to  constraint, 
to  dreariness,  to  loss  and  joyless  life.  It  is  a  call  to  a 
nobler,  happier  human  life.  Not  more  pleasureable  perhaps. 
The  first  necessary  condition  of  a  human  happiness  is 
to  trample  pleasure  under  foot.  The  fish,  if  he  become 
a  man,  would  lose  the  pleasure  of  darting  about  under 
the  water,  but  how  much  nobler  is  it  to  live  as  a  man  in 
the  air! 


LETTER  XI. 


Faith  joins  us  to  the  Lord,  but  not  necessarily  the 
thought  of  faith.  We  may  take  hold  of  God  by  an  act, 
when  we  are  not  at  all  aware  that  it  is  inspired  by  faith. 


Dear  Friend: — 

I  have  now  tried,   as  well  as  I  could,  to  show  the 
nature  of  the  act  of  coming  to  Christ,  and  also  what  we 


Retn  jfteDetick  La  i&ue  ming     423 

come  to  Christ  for.  It  remains  in  a  few  words  to  speak 
of  the  manner  of  our  coming  to  Christ.  There  are  two 
modes  of  trusting  Christ, — in  thought,  and  in  act.  The 
dying  thief  had  only  time  and  opportunity  for  the  thought 
of  faith.  He  could  only  say,  "Lord,  remember  me  when  thou 
comest  in  Thy  Kingdom."  (Luke  23:42).  That  was 
enough, — though  he  had  no  opportunity  to  manifest  his  faith 
by  works,  though  a  few  moments  before  he  was  a  blas- 
phemer; though  he  had  no  time  to  become  sanctified,  he 
was  justified  and  that  very  day  passed  into  paradise  with 
the  Lord.  Our  Saviour  asks  only  for  trust  in  him  as  the 
sole  condition  of  salvation.  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent 
in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted 
up,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life."  (John  3:4-15.)  It  needed  but 
a  look  of  faith  at  the  brazen  serpent  for  the  Israelites  to  be 
healed,  and  there  is  eternal  life  for  a  look  unto  the  Lamb  of 
God  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

The  couplet, 

"Between  the  saddle  and  the  ground, 
I  mercy  sought  and  mercy  found," 
is  not  too  strong  a  statement  of  the  instantaneousness  with 
which  the  remedy  which  God  has  provided  can  be  exhibited 
and  appropriated.  Though  it  would  be  perilous  in  the 
extreme  to  presume  upon  it, — still  we  must  allow  the 
possibility  of  a  man's  being  saved  in  the  article  of  death, 
for  in  a  moment  he  can  rest  in  faith  on  the  Saviour.  It  is 
very  unlikely  that  a  man  at  the  instant  of  death  will  for 
the  first  time  trust  the  Saviour,  but  we  must  allow  the 
possibility. 

Union  with  the  Lord  and  the  Christian  life  begins  in 
the  case  of  many  with  the  thought  of  faith  alone.  Though 
a  man  were  alone  in  a  desert,  afar  from  his  fellow  men, 
and  so  unable  to  do  the  works  of  faith,  it  is  sufficient  for 
his  salvation  if  he  know  and  act  upon  the  sole  condition 
of  the  Gospel,  "Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou 


424  Selected  Psalms  anO  ©onogtapfjg 

shalt  be  saved."  But  where  it  is  possible,  more  than  the 
thought  of  faith  is  required.  Now  all  those  acts  in  which 
we  strive  to  do  holily,  lovingly  and  nobly  in  the  Lord — 
relying  upon  His  working  through  us, — are  acts  of  faith 
and  in  them  often  begins  the  Christian  life,  in  them  we 
are  sometimes  for  the  first  time  joined  to  the  Lord.  Some- 
times a  person  in  his  closet  strives  with  all  his  might  to 
think  the  thought  of  faith,  and  finds  it  impossible.  He 
calls  up  all  the  promises  of  the  Gospel  and  tries  to  give 
himself  up  to  the  Saviour.  But  he  finds  himself  as  unable 
to  do  it,  as  to  lift  himself  in  his  own  arms.  After  all  his 
efforts  he  remains  without  rest  or  peace  or  hope  or  joy. 
The  very  eagerness  of  his  desire  lends  to  defeat  itself. 
Sometimes  peace  comes  after  a  long  struggle,  and  in 
thought  the  burdened  one  is  enabled  to  take  hold  on  Christ. 
But  often  peace  comes  in  another  way.  Forgetting  him- 
self and  his  needs,  in  the  care  for  and  sympathy  with  the 
sorrows  and  necessities  of  others,  the  man,  trying  to  do 
the  work  of  the  Lord,  relying  on  the  might  of  the  Lord, 
finds  that  he  has  unaware  given  himself  to  the  Lord,  and  is 
planted  in  Him,  never  more  to  be  shaken.  The  joy  and 
peace  of  his  Risen  Lord  fills  his  heart,  and  to  his  surprise 
he  finds  that  he  has  fulfilled  the  condition  of  salvation. 
The  thought  of  faith  is  good,  and  we  ought  to  pursue  it  in 
our  closets.  Our  Master  often  sought  His  closet,  and  even 
passed  whole  nights  in  prayer,  but  His  life  was  mainly 
passed  in  acts  of  love  and  service  towards  His  fellow  men, 
and  in  such  acts  we  most  naturally  draw  near  to  find  Him 
and  company  with  Him,  striving  to  do  those  things  that 
without  Him  we  cannot  do, — not  merely  giving  away  to 
pleasent  natural  impulses. 

LETTER  XII. 


The  Church,  with  her  ordinances,  is  Christ's  best  rep- 
resentative in  this  world;  if  we  come  in  faith  and  love  to 
the  Church,  we  come  to  Christ  to  grow  into  His  likeness. 


Rein  jFreDerick  £a  Rue  ifting     425 

Dear  Friend: — 

There  is  one  act  of  faith  great  and  prominently  as- 
sociated with  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  life.  I  mean 
the  entering  the  Christian  Church.  The  great  new  com- 
mandments of  our  Master  was  that  Christians  should  love 
each  other.  Christianity  is  intensely  social.  In  so  far  as 
a  Christian  Church  is  not  social,  in  so  far  forth  it  is  not 
Christian.  If,  then,  we  love  the  Lord,  we  will  not,  we  can- 
not, remain  apart  from  our  brethren  in  the  Lord.  And  if 
Christians  were  only  more  like  Christ,  what  better  way 
would  there  be  to  seek  Christ  than  to  seek  the  society  of 
Christians.  To  love  Christians  would  be  to  love  their  Master 
for  in  them  they  would  find  their  Master.  But  still,  though 
Christian  society,  that  is,  the  Church,  falls  far  short  of  what 
it  should  be,  though  it  but  faintly  and  brokenly  reflects  His 
glory  who  is  "chiefest  among  ten  thousand  and  altogether 
lovely",  it  is  still  a  priceless  privilege  to  enter  and  become 
part  of  it.  Whither  must  we  go  to  hear  the  word  of  the 
Lord  preached,  Which  is  not  only  a  duty  but  a  means  of 
grace?  Whither  must  we  go  for  united  prayer  and  praise, — 
not  only  a  duty,  but  a  means  of  grace?  And  there  we 
have  preserved  for  our  use  those  precious  symbols  of  grace, 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  Our  Lord  com- 
manded that  we  should  forever  use,  that  forever  might  be 
kept  alive  in  the  Church  the  sense  of  entire  dependence  upon 
His  life  and  presence  in  those  who  are  His.  And  if  you 
would  do  what  is  now  incumbent  upon  you,  you  must  seek 
Christ,  not  only  in  your  closet,  through  the  thought  of  faith, 
not  only  in  acts  of  faith  through  deeds  of  love  and  service, 
but  also  in  His  church, — listening  humbly  and  faithfully 
to  Hib  word,  singing  His  praises,  relying  on  the  help  of  the 
Spirit  of  all  praise,  praying  as  by  means  of  Him  who 
maketh  intercession  through  us  "with  groanings  that  cannot 
be  uttered"  (Rom.  8:2,6.);  and  (if  you  have  been  al- 
ready baptized)  drawing  near  to  His  table  to  take  and  eat 
of  the  symbols  of  His  broken  body  and  shed  blood. 


426  ^electeD  P$alm0  anD  ^onograpfjg 

Many  there  are  who  now  having  failed  to  find  Christ 
in  the  thought  of  faith,  or  in  the  acts  of  service,  have  found 
Him  in  His  church,  and  especially  at  His  holy  table, — in 
the  large  promise  and  offer, — bountifully  free, — that  He 
makes  through  those  who  minister  in  His  name.  "Take 
and  eat,  this  is  my  body".  Surely,  if  ever,  we  can  draw 
near  there  and  then.  Nowhere  does  He  show  himself  more 
accessible,  putting  Himself  into  (as  it  were)  our  very  hearts, 
and  nowhere  can  we  so  fully  realize  His  great  act  of  dying 
for  us. 

Tihis  then  is  the  sum  of  all  that  I  have  written.  Would 
you  be  saved,  you  must  first  become  aware  that  you  are 
lest.  Not  that  it  is  necessary  for  you  to  have  that  intense 
feeling  of  this.  Many  make  a  great  mistake  here,  and  think 
that  if  they  do  not  have  deep  and  terrible  conviction  of  sin 
first,  then  they  have  no  right  to  act  in  the  matter.  This 
is  an  exceedingly  mistaken  view.  If  you  only  feel  your 
lost  estate  so  that  you  are  prompted  to  apply  to  the  Lord 
for  deliverance,  it  is  enough.  But  you  must  not  merely 
feel  that  you  are  in  a  bad  situation,  and  in  danger  of  peril 
from  that,  but  that  in  yourself  you  are  undone,  and  your 
desire  for  deliverance  must  be  a  desire  for  transformation 
into  the  likeness  of  Christ.  This  you  are  not  to  beseech  of 
Christ,  but  to  take  at  once, — it  being  freely  offered  to  you. 
Simple  trust  will  save  you,  for  as  Christ  met  the  woman's 
touch  upon  the  hem  of  His  garment  by  healing  virtue  from 
His  person,  so  He  will  surely  meet  your  trust,  by  sending 
the  power  of  His  whole  life  through  the  Holy  Spirit  into 
the  centre  of  your  life,  and  make  you  one  with  Him  as 
really  as  my  hand,  eye  or  heart  is  part  of  myself.  What 
I  deserve,  my  hand,  eye  or  heart  deserves;  to  touch  my 
hand,  eye  or  heart,  is  to  touch  me;  and  so  those  who  are 
through  faith,  made  Christ's  members,  are  at  once  as  free 
from  condemnation  as  He  is,  and  deserve  all  that  He  de- 
serves, though  in  themselves  they  deserve  nothing  but  punish- 
ment.     This   will   be   their   confidence   in   the   Great   Last 


Rett*  jFreOerick  La  Eue  iking     427 

Day.  They  are  found  in  Him  and  in  Him  are  justified, 
and  in  Him  inherit  all  things.  (Eph.  1  :22-23). 

You  may  not  be  conscious,  though  you  do  really 
trust  in  the  Saviour,  that  this  vital  relation  has  been  estab- 
lished, for  it  is  the  act  of  God,  and  not  spiritual  experience. 
It  is  beneath  the  consciousness.  But  the  whole  Christian 
life  is  made  up  of  acts  of  faith.  Seek  Him  without  ceasing 
in  your  closet  by  thought,  in  the  world  by  all  acts  of  love 
and  service,  in  the  church  in  its  praises  and  prayers,  and 
at  the  Table  of  the  Lord.  At  some  point,  at  some  time, 
you  will  realize  that  you  are  actually  joined  to  the  Lord, 
that  you  are  His,  and  He  is  yours,  and  you  will  be  filled 
with  peace  and  joy.  But  feelings  do  not  save  us,  nor  are 
they  a  sure  mark  of  a  saved  state.  Faith  saves  us  even 
though  we  pass  through  life  without  the  assurance. 

And  then  having  entered  into  the  way  of  life,  go  on 
to  perfection.  Put  on  Christ  in  all  holy  and  lovely  human 
doing,  "hasting  not,  resting  not"  in  the  constant  exercise 
of  faith  till  that  day  when  He  who  has  the  Key  of  David, 
"who  openeth  and  no  man  shutteth,"  (Rev.  3:7)  shall 
swing  wide  Heaven's  portal,  and  receive  you  with  welcome 
and  plaudits  to  your  everlasting  home.  Remember  you  must 
exert  your  will.  Though  you  may  be  joined  to  the  Lord 
and  have  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  will  not  perforce  make  you 
grow  in  grace.  Your  growth  as  a  Christian  will  be  the  natu- 
ral result  of  the  life  of  Christ  within  you,  just  as  the  growth 
of  a  plant  is  the  natural  result  of  its  life  and  its  environment. 
You  may  have  the  Holy  Spirit  in  you,  but  unless  you  ex- 
ert your  will  in  all  holy  acting,  it  will  not  possess  you.  The 
life  in  my  body  will  not  lift  it,  or  it  will  hang  down  list- 
less. So  a  Christian  must  exert  himself  if  he  would  grow 
in  grace.  Use  all  the  means  of  grace,  and  especially  the 
Church  and  its  ordinances. 

Not  that  joining  the  church  makes  us  safe,  or  even 
safer.  Any  one  who  feels  a  sense  of  security  merely  be- 
cause of  belonging  to  the  church  is  in  a  dangerous  way. 


428  Selected  psalms  anD  Oionograpjjs 

We  do  not  trust  the  Church,  but  we  are  commanded  to  con- 
fess Christ  publicly — before  all  men.  That  is  to  join  the 
Church,  and  the  true  church  is  found  wherever  there  is 
"a  congregation  of  faithful  men  in  which  the  pure  word  of 
God  is  preached  and  the  sacraments  administered"  (See 
Article  XIX).  Thither  go  and  enlist  as  a  good  sol- 
dier of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Put  forth  your  hand  to  His 
holy  table,  and  eat  and  drink  through  faith  to  life  ever- 
lasting. You  may  say,  "I  am  too  unworthy  to  do  this". 
It  is  because  you  are  unworthy  that  I  call  upon  you  to  do 
it.  If  you  were  worthy,  there  would  be  no  need  of  it. 
The  most  humiliating  acknowledgment  that  a  Christian  can 
make  of  his  unworthiness  is  in  taking  the  Holy  Communion. 
By  it  he  owns  that  he  is  so  utterly  lost  and  undone  and  cur- 
rupt;  that  he  must  be  made  entirely  anew  by  the  life  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Enter,  then,  into  His  banqueting  hall,  and 
His  banner  over  you  is  love." 

And  now  I  have  endeavored  to  bring  you  to  the 
threshold  of  the  inner  sanctury  of  God.  Before  you 
the  holiest  of  all — the  very  presence  of  God.  In  former 
days,  under  the  Old  Covenant,  there  hung  before  it  the 
separating  veil.  It  is  now  rent,  and  the  way  is  open  for 
you  to  enter.  Into  it  you  must  go  if  you  would  be  saved. 
No  high  priest,  no  mediator,  can  now  go  for  you — you 
must  go  for  yourself — you  must  go  alone.  No, — not  alone. 
No  human  being,  no  priest  no  church — can  help  you  or 
go  with  you,  but  there  stands  by  you  at  the  threshold  Our 
Great  High  Priest  who  said,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  world."  With  Him  enter,  in  Him 
present  yourself,  and  you  can  look  up  as  He  does,  and  say, 
Abba — Father.  And  say  with  Him,  "Our  Father. —  (John 
20:1  7  verse,  last  clause.) 


Keii.  JFteDetitb  Ha  Rue  King     429 


[Another  specimen  of  my  brother's  writings,  exhibiting  a  rare  ver- 
satility in  his  literary  genius. — A.  B.  K.] 


In  the  course  of  my  travels  through  the  Earth,  I  came, 
once  upon  a  time,  to  a  beautiful  city,  seated  upon  a  lofty 
eminence,  so  as  to  be  plainly  seen  While  yet  one  was  far  off. 
They  told  me  that  the  name  of  this  fair  City  was  Zion — 
The  City  of  the  Living  God — and  that  those  who  dwelt 
in  it  were  especially  loved  by  him.  It  was  very  strongly 
fortified,  with  high  walls  and  many  lofty  towers  and  pon- 
derous gates;  and  upon  the  ramparts  walked  they  who 
watched  continually.  I  asked  if  strangers  were  permitted 
to  visit  this  City,  and  was  told  that  the  gates  stood  open 
all  the  day,  so  that  any  one  might  enter,  only  when  the  sun 
went  down  they  were  shut  "because  of  fear  in  the  night." 

So  I  ascended  the  hill  upon  which  the  City  was  built, 
and  found,  indeed,  the  gates  open;  but  hardly  had  I  passed 
through,  when  many  of  the  citizens  came  running  to  me  and 
embraced  me  with  tears  and  joy,  as  if  I  was  a  long  lost 
brother.  Indeed,  they  said  that  I  was  their  long  lost  brother 
and  told  me,  "Welcome  home!"  They  took  away  my 
clothes,  soiled  and  worn  by  my  much  wandering.  They 
had  me  bathed,  and  clothed  me  in  the  clean  white  raiment 
of  the  City,  and  set  before  me  bread  and  wine.  Much  did 
I  wonder  at  first  that  I  was  treated  thus,  but  soon  such 
a  feeling  of  security  and  peace  and  rest  possessed  me  that 
it  seemed  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that  the  people 
of  the  City  should  behave  so  kind  towards  me.  For  though 
I  did  remember  the  place  where  I  was  born  and  bred  and 
my  kinsfolks  and  brothers  and  sisters,  yet,  for  all  that,  the 
conviction  became  stronger  in  my  mind  that  I  had  been 


430  Selected  Psalms  and  ^onograpljg 

all  my  life  under  a  delusion,  and  that  this  was  my  true  home 
and  birth-place,  and  that  these  were  my  true  kindred  whom 
I  saw  around  me. 

But  now  my  attention  was  drawn  to  the  City  and 
its  inhabitants.  I  walked  with  one  of  the  citizens  upon  the 
ramparts  from  which  we  could  survey  a  vast  extent  of 
country.  "Your  City  seems  large,"  said  I,  "and  its  in- 
habitants a  great  multitude.  How  are  they  supported?  What 
is  their  occupation?"  "Our  support",  he  said,  "comes  from 
above,  from  the  Father  of  lights.  He  sends  us  the  hidden 
manna,  the  living  bread,  and  wine  and  milk  we  have  with- 
out money  and  without  price.  Water  we  draw  from  the 
wells  of  salvation  which  are  within  the  citadel.  As  to 
our  occupation,  it  is  gone.  We  are  gardeners,  but  our 
garden  is  laid  waste,  and  we  dare  not  enter  it.  All  the 
land  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  on  every  side  is  our  pat- 
rimony. And  were  it  not  in  the  possession  of  our  enemy, 
it  would  be  as  the  garden  of  God  for  beauty  and  faithful- 
ness. But  by  his  destructive  raids  and  tyrannical  rule,  he 
keeps  everything  desolate.  It  is  because  of  him  that  this  City 
is  so  fortified  and  guarded.  He  makes  many  an  attack  in 
open  day,  tries  many  a  surprise  by  night,  and  never  ceases 
his  effort  to  corrupt  the  garrison.  So  great  are  his  craft  and 
his  power  that  we  know  it  is  only  because  the  Lord  keepeth 
the  City  that  we  are  safe. 

Hearing  all  this,  I  was  surprised,  in  going  about  among 
the  people,  to  see  so  much  content  and  cheerfulness  mani- 
fested in  their  looks  and  actions.  No  sound  of  fretfulness 
or  impatience  could  be  heard,  peace  and  silence  was  over 
all  the  City. 

Then  I  asked  one  how  this  was.  "I  see",  said  I, 
"that  your  townsmen  have  not  forgotten  their  birthright 
and  patrimony.  There  are  garden  tools  in  every  house, 
and  wherever  a  flower  can  be  made  to  blow  or  a  vine  be 
trained,  there  I  see  flowers  and  vines.  I  note  their  craving 
for  the  free  life  of  the  country,  by  their  striving  to  realize 


Eetn  ^Frederick  £a  Eue  ifting     431 

garden-life  as  far  as  they  can  in  the  midst  of  the  City, — 
but,  then,  what  quiet  and  rest, — what  absence  of  all  com- 
plaint!" 

"That  is  because  they  live  in  the  assured  hope  that 
the  King  above,  will,  at  the  proper  time,  make  them  to 
re-possess  (again)  their  garden-land.  They  never  cease 
to  desire,  but  they  cry  not  out  to  the  Lord,  for  they  know 
that  He  knows  their  hearts,  so  they  wait  on  Him,  content. 
They  crave  the  blessing,  and  their  vow  is  recorded,  and 
when  the  blessing  comes  it  will  be  performed." 

"What  vow?"  I  asked.  Then  he  led  me  up  to 
the  Temple  and  showed  me,  together  with  all  the  imple- 
ments of  service,  vast  organs  and  other  instruments,  some  of 
which  I  could  not  name.  They  were  all  placed  in  order, 
and  in  countless  numbers, — as  he  told  me, — kept  in  perfect 
tune,  so  that  at  any  time  they  might  be  used.  He  showed 
me  also  in  the  cloisters,  great  halls  where  multitudes  of 
youth  and  maidens  were  a-training  in  the  service  of  song. 
Everything  bore  the  appearance  of  the  eve  of  a  great  and 
joyful  celebration.  "Surely,  we  know  now,"  said  my  con- 
ductor, "that  the  vow  is  the  vow  of  praise.  When  the 
day  of  restitution  comes,  this  silent  City  will  ring  with  the 
sound  of  music  and  with  voices  that  sing." 

"Now  do  I  remember",  said  I,  "reading  of  this  place 
in  a  certain  Book, — 'as  well  the  singers  as  the  players  on 
instruments  shall  be  there'.  "Grand  will  be  the  day  when 
the  voice  of  loud  praise  shall  fill  the  City,  but  the  best 
praise  that  can  be  given  now  is  the  praise  of  silent  waiting. 
They  do  well  to  be  quiet  and  prepared,  so  that,  whether 
He  cometh  at  midnight  or  at  cock-crowing,  they  may  be 
ready  with  their  songs  of  joy. 

I  now  perceived  that  I  had  come  into  a  blessed  place. 

I  was  thankful  that  it  was  my  home,  and,  as  day  suc- 
ceeded day,  I  was  fast  forgetting  mine  own  people  and  my 
father's  house. 


432  Selected  psalms  and  ^onograpfts 

Still,  from  time  to  time  I  was  made  uneasy  by  thoughts 
of  them.  When  the  people  of  the  City  descend  to  take 
possession  of  their  patrimony,  what  will  become  of  my  kind- 
red and  all  the  dwellers  in  the  Plains?  Will  they  be  trampled 
under  foot,  as  were  the  nine  nations  of  Canaan?  Have  they 
nothing  to  hope  for  in  our  prosperity?  So  I  asked  the  one 
who  before  had  instructed  me.  "Think  not",  he  said, 
"that  we  of  this  City  are  selfish  in  our  prayers  and  ex- 
pectations. Surely,  you  yourself  know  how  open  stand 
our  gates  and  how  warm  our  welcome  is  to  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  plains.  Nay,  we  have  sent  and  let  them 
know  again  and  again  that  we  would  have  all  of  them  come 
to  us.  But  our  great  enemy  has  power  to  deceive  them. 
He  causes,  by  spells  in  the  air, — for  he  is  the  Prince  of 
the  Power  of  the  air, — 'that  this  City  shall  be  invisible  to 
many,  so  that  they  say  there  is  no  such  place.  And  to 
those  who  see  it  he  makes  it  appear,  by  false  shows  of 
clouds  and  dark  shadows,  most  dismal  and  dreary.  And 
if  any  catch  glimpses  of  it  in  its  beauty,  he  causes  to  be  re- 
ported to  them  that  the  way  is  beset  and  impassable,  and 
that  they  never  will  be  received.  They  know  not  that  the 
gates  are  wide  open  all  he  day." 

"Our  enemy  also  reports  that  this  City  is  a  dreadful 
prison,  and  we,  unhappy  captives,  and  that  Our  Lord  is 
a  hatefull  tyrant;  and  while  he  and  his  underlings  harass 
the  people  and  eat  out  their  substance,  he  layeth  many  of 
the  grievous  things  that  he  does  to  the  charge  of  the  City's 
King.  Many  of  the  townsmen  have  gone  down  to  tell  the 
people  the  truth  about  this  place,  and  to  assure  them  of 
Our  Lord's  good  will,  and  our  loving  mind  towards  them, 
but  some  of  them  have  been  chased  away,  and  some  of 
them  have  been  killed.  Only  here  and  there  has  (and  that 
by  the  help  of  the  Lord,  for  our  enemy  set  them  against  us) 
one  been  permitted  to  see  and  desire  the  beauty  of  this 
City,  and  to  come  near  enough  to  know  that  he  might  enter. 


Eefcn  jFreDerick  £a  Eue  Eing     433 

Now  when  our  King  leads  us  forth,  He  will  cast 
out  the  oppressor  of  the  people  of  the  land,  and  although 
we  shall  possess  all,  yet  they  shall  be  blessed  in  our 
blessing,  and  shall  possess  under  us.  What  cheers  us 
most  in  our  long  waiting  is  that  our  triumph  will  show  them 
so  clearly  the  might  and  faithfulness  of  Our  God,  and  will 
bring  to  them  so  much  good,  that  they  will  become  willing 
servants  of  Our  Heavenly  King,  will  live  with  us  as  brethren, 
and  together  with  us  go  up  to  this  City,  where  He  will 
ever  be,  (and  whence  His  glory  will  shine  over  all  this  re- 
gion)  and  worship  in  His  presence. 

The  day  that  restores  to  us  a  patrimony  will  restore 
a  Father,  and  that  is  one  great  reason  why  we  long  for 
that  day. 

Then  I  mused  for  a  while,  and  said,  "I  now  see  how 
you  can  lovingly  desire  to  cast  down  all  the  power  of  the 
land  below;  I  see  now  that  it  is  for  them  you  pray  and 
wait,  as  much  as  yourselves.  I  see  how  blessed  they  will 
be  who  shall  dwell  in  your  houses  with  you  in  the  garden 
land  that  is  to  be." 

"But  how  glorious  the  lot  of  the  people  of  this  City! 
I  perceive  that  they  are  those  whom  the  Lord  makes 
"Princes  in  all  the  Earth".  (Ps.  45:16)  "Surely,  they 
shall  reign  with  him  over  the  Land.  Such  favor  can  be  only 
for  sinless  ones."  Then  my  thoughts  troubled  me,  and  my 
sins  mame  to  my  remembrance,  and  I  thought, — I  can  never 
be  one  of  those  who  will  triumph  from  this  place  and  reign 
in  glory;  as  soon  as  I  am  known  I  will  be  cast  out,  into  the 
hand  of  the  Enemy,  and  who  knoweth  if  I  shall  ever  even 
see  the  good  time  of  the  Land. 

When  my  instructor  perceived  my  thoughts,  for  I  told 
him,  he  was  troubled  with  me,  and  said, — "You  must 
banish  this  fear,  or  else  leave  the  City,  as  no  doubtful  or 
fearful  ones  are  allowed  to  remain  here.  Hasten  to  the  Ob- 
servatory. You  must  see  some  things  with  your  own  eyes 
or  you  will  never  be  delivered  from  your  fears." 


434  Selected  psalms  anD  S@onograpi)$ 

Now,  in  the  highest  part  of  the  City  there  was  built 
a  lofty  tower,  on  whose  top  was  a  sage  with  a  great  pro- 
spective glass  and  hearing  tube,  by  means  of  which  heavenly 
things  could  be  seen  and  heard.  To  him  did  we  ascend, 
and  him  my  conductor  begged  to  show  me  how  it  was  that 
the  people  of  the  City  kept  favor  with  God  and  were  right- 
eous in  His  eyes.  Then  he  bade  me  look  through  the  pro- 
spective glass,  and  at  once  I  saw  the  throne  of  God  and  Him 
that  sat  thereon,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  holy 
angels  around  about.  Then  before  the  throne  I  saw  one 
dark  and  crafty  present  himself.  I  knew  that  he  was  the 
great  enemy  of  the  City,  the  ruler  over  the  Land.  "What 
seest  thou?"  said  the  sage.  So  I  told  him.  "Now  apply 
thine  ear  to  the  hearing  tube,  and  thou  wilt  hear  what 
he  shall  say."  So  I  listened,  and  though  I  saw  nothing,  I 
thought  I  was  there.  I  heard  dreadful  things.  I  heard  the 
saints  accused  of  fearful  crimes.  Abraham  and  Isaac  and 
Jacob  and  Moses  and  David  and  all  God's  great  ones 
were  accused.  I  heard  it  said  that  the  people  of  this  City 
had  been  fornicators,  and  idolators,  and  adulterers,  and 
thieves  and  covetous,  and  drunkards,  and  revelers,  and  ex- 
tortioners, and  I  knew  in  my  own  heart  that  these  things  would 
never  be  said  before  the  throne  of  God  unless  they  were 
true.  At  last  there  came  silense.  "Look  now  through  the 
glass",  said  the  sage.  I  looked,  and  saw  before  the  throne 
of  the  Great  God  and  confronting  the  adversary  one  of  ma- 
jestic form,  clothed  in  priestly  garments  of  linen.  He  was 
like  to  Him  who  sat  on  the  throne  as  a  son  is  to  his  Father. 
He  seemed  stricken  to  death,  His  side  was  pierced  with 
a  great  gaping  wound,  and  His  hands  and  feet  were  pierced 
and  seemed  to  drip  with  blood.  He  addressed  himself  to 
speak,  and  I  listened  through  the  tube  of  hearing.  Then 
did  I  hear  the  Son  of  God  take  shame  to  Himself,  and  con- 
fess the  sins  of  His  people  as  if  they  were  His  own.  He 
made  no  distinction  between  Himself  and  His  people.  Me- 
thought  He  used  these  words, — "Mine  iniquities  are  gone 


Eeto*  JFreDerick  La  Eue  i&ina     435 

over  my  head".  "Mine  iniquities  have  taken  hold  of  me, 
so  that  I  am  not  able  to  look  up."  (Ps.  38:4)  (Ps.  40:12). 
"O  God,  thou  knowest  my  foolishness,  and  my  sins  are  not 
hid  from  thee."  (Ps.  69:5).  "Thou  hast  known  my  re- 
proach and  my  shame  and  my  dishonor,  mine  adversaries  are 
all  before  thee."  (Ps.  69:19).  "Pour  out  thine  indignation 
upon  them,  and  let  thy  wrathful  anger  take  hold  of  them." 
(Ps.  69:24).  "For  they  persecute  him  whom  thou  hast 
smitten,  and  talk  grief  to  those  whom  thou  hast  wounded." 
(Ps.  69:26). 

Then  boldly  did  He  say  that  they  who  had  com- 
mitted the  sins  which  Satan  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  people 
of  the  City,  had  long  ago  died,  that  the  spear  thrust  in  His 
side  and  the  wounds  in  His  hands  and  feet,  had  slain  them. 
(Gal.  2:20)  That  they  were  no  more  on  earth  and  that 
their  death  had  paid  all  claims.  (Rom.  6:7)  He  said  that 
those  who  dwelt  in  the  City,  He  had  begotten  since  the  time 
that  He  had  risen  from  the  grave  by  the  power  of  the 
Life  of  his  Father  in  Him,  which  could  not  be  touched  by 
the  spear  or  by  any  human  agonies.  Then  he  called  all  the 
heavenly  host  to  look  at  the  City,  and  said,  "Behold,  I 
and  the  children  which  God  hath  given  me",  and  claimed 
for  them  all  that  was  rightfully  due  Himself.  Then  re- 
member I  the  words,  "He  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us 
who  knew  no  sin",  and  again,  "I  am  crucified  with  Christ, 
nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me,  and  the 
life  that  I  now  live  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God 
who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me."  And  again,  "For 
if  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the  likeness  of  His 
death,  we  shall  be  in  the  likeness  of  His  resurrection", — and 
yet  again,  "that  He  might  be  just,  and  yet  the  justifier  of  him 
that  believeth  in  Jesus."  I  wondered,  and  joy  and  hope 
began  in  my  heart,  but  doubt  snatched  it  away,  as  I  asked 
within  myself,  "Is  it  for  me?"  Then,  with  my  heart  full 
of  doubt  and  fear  I  looked  through  the  prospective  glass,  to 
see  if  I  could  catch  a  token  for  Good.      But  when  I  looked  I 


436  Selected  psalms  ana  ^onograp&s 

saw  the  Adversary  standing  with  outstretched  hand,  point- 
ing down  directly  at  me.  I  started  back  in  great  affright, 
and  would  have  fled  fiom  the  place,  but  they  held  me,  and 
said  that  it  behooved  me  to  hear  the  words  that  the  Adver- 
sary would  say.  So  I  listened  at  the  tube  of  hearing,  and 
heard  his  words,  and  I  knew  that  all  the  time  his  hand  was 
pointing  at  me. 

He  accused  me  of  being  the  worse  sinner  of  all,  because 
I  doubted.  He  said  that  the  decree  had  long  gone  forth 
from  the  throne  that  the  fearful  and  unbelieving  should  have 
their  part  in  the  lake  of  fire.  And  indeed  I  saw,  myself, 
what  a  sin  it  was  not  to  lay  hold  of  Eternal  Life  as  one's 
own,  since  God  had  so  clearly  given  it  to  me. 

Surely  it  was  known  in  the  upper  region,  for  ere  I 
turned  away  I  heard  What  seemed  the  first  part  of  a  triump- 
hant song,  struck  upon  many  thousand  harps,  and  I  remem- 
bered the  words,  "There  is  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner 
who  repenteth."  And  also  it  did  seem  to  me  as  if  every  bell 
in  the  city  did  softly  chime,  and  as  when  a  wind  rustles  the 
leaves  of  a  wood,  a  sound  passed  over  as  if  every  one  in  the 
city  whispered,  "The  Lord  our  Righteousness."  Truly 
this  was  not  all,  for  when  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  tower, 
there  was  given  into  my  hands  a  letter  that  a  messenger  from 
the  throne  had  that  moment  brought  for  me.  It  was  to  be 
my  warrant  that  I  had  the  freedom  of  the  city.  So,  when 
I  had  cut  the  silk  around  it,  I  read  therein, — "Whosoever 
will,  let  him  take  of  the  water  of  Life  freely." 

And  now  a  trumpeter  was  sent  out  upon  the  walls,  to 
the  accuser.  And  first  he  sounded  his  trumpet  so  melo- 
dious and  loud,  that  it  rang  over  all  the  plains.  Then  he 
proclaimed,  "The  Virgin,  the  Daughter  of  Zion,  hath  de- 
spised thee,  and  laughted  thee  to  scorn;  the  daughter  of 
Jerusalem  hath  shaken  her  head  at  thee.  Whom  hast  thou 
reproached  and  blasphemed?  And  against  whom  hast 
thou  exalted  thy  voice?  Even  against  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel!" 


l&etn  jFreDerick  La  Eue  Mm     437 

When  this  defiance  had  been  uttered,  from  the  highest 
part  of  the  city  a  flag  was  unrolled,  and  upon  that 
flag  was  painted  the  words,  "Jehova-nissi — the  Lord  my 
banner." 

Methought  I  heard  in  response  some  note  of  warlike 
preparation,  and  could  discern  threatening  movements,  and 
the  glitter  of  arms  far  off  in  the  plain.  So  the  watch  was  set 
with  care  on  the  walls  at  the  down-going  of  the  sun,  and  ere 
he  lay  down,  every  one  looked  to  his  arms,  but  nothing  came 
near  that  night,  and  all  night  long  a  light  shone  from  the 
Temple,  and  enwrapped  the  whole  city,  so  that  it  was  like 
day,  and  the  Townsmen  knew  that  the  Lord  was  with  them, 
so  they  lay  themselves  down  in  peace  and  slept. 

Then  there  was  silence,  as  if  the  enemy  was  waiting 
for  Judgment  to  be  given  against  me.  But  immediately  I 
began  to  hear  innumerable  voices,  whether  of  angels  or  re- 
deemed men  I  knew  not,  but  as  distinctly  and  clear  as  if 
there  was  no  other,  and  yet  they  seemed  to  be  innumerable 
like  the  flakes  of  snow  that  fill  the  air  in  a  winter  storm.  I 
heard  such  things  as  these,  "Only  believe."  "Come,  for 
all  things  are  ready."  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth 
from  all  sin."  "I  will.  Be  thou  clean."  "Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  "Without 
money  and  without  price."      "Come  unto  me." 

And  then  there  was  a  great  voice,  that  seemed  to 
sound  from  far  away  like  deep  thunder.      "It  is  finished." 

I  cannot  tell  how  it  was,  but  I  seemed  to  lose  the  power 
to  doubt.  I  was  as  if  borne  away  by  a  current  that  I 
could  not  resist.  I  said  to  myself,  "If  the  King  wills  it, 
who  am  I  to  gainsay  it?" 

I  ventured  on  God.  I  remembered  the  words,  "The 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence."  And  I  took  it  as 
my  own. 


